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Dessert

Spanish Cakes

A sweet almond cake flavored with orange flower water, rose water, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Spanish Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds, then pound them to a paste with orange flower water.

  2. Mix in the powdered sugar, dried flour, and powdered cinnamon.

Make the batter

  1. Whisk the eggs thoroughly, then add them to the mixture in a chocolate mill.

  2. Gradually add the dry ingredients, rose water, and light wine, milling the mixture after each addition.

  3. Continue milling until the batter is very light.

Bake

  1. Butter a pan and bake the cake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whisked eggs add structure and lightness, helping the batter rise and set in the oven.
Sweet almonds
Ground almonds supply the bulk of the cake, giving body, richness and a tender crumb.
Dried flour
Flour gives the batter structure so the cake holds its shape as it sets.
Powdered sugar
Sugar adds sweetness and helps the cake brown lightly during baking.
Light wine
Adds moisture and a little acidity to the batter, loosening its texture.

The step that matters

Continue milling until the batter is very light. Beating air into the eggs and batter is what makes this cake rise and turn light. Stopping early leaves it dense, while the gentle milling must be done before baking so the air is trapped in the batter.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar, flour, cinnamon, egg, rose, wine):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, flour, cinnamon, egg, rose, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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