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Dessert

Cocoanut and Almond Cake

A sweet cake made with cocoanut, almonds, powdered sugar, butter, egg whites, milk, lemon zest, and rose water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Cocoanut and Almond Cake

Why it works: Nutmeg and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cocoanut and Almond Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice, grated peel, and nutmeg.

  4. Mix in the milk, egg whites, and flour alternately until well combined.

  5. Gently fold in the grated cocoanut.

  6. Divide the batter into four jelly-cake tins.

  7. Bake until golden.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the almonds.

  2. Let them cool and dry.

  3. Pound the almonds in a mortar, adding rose water gradually.

Assemble and finish

  1. Stir the almond paste into the icing after it is made.

  2. Spread the icing between the cooled cakes.

  3. Make the top layer thicker.

  4. Decorate the top with shredded almonds.

  5. Let it harden in the oven without scorching.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Egg whites
Whisked stiff and folded in, they lighten the batter and give structure as it bakes.
Prepared flour
Forms the main structure of the cake once baked.
Grated cocoanut
Adds moisture and a chewy texture to the batter.
Sweet almonds
Pounded into the icing, they add flavour, body and a nutty richness.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and, when made into icing, gives the filling and topping sweetness and body.

The step that matters

Let it harden in the oven without scorching. Egg-white icing sets through gentle heat; too much heat browns or scorches the sugar surface before the interior firms, so the oven must stay low and watched.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, egg, milk, nutmeg, almond):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, egg, milk, nutmeg, almond. 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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