Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Almond Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Prepare the spice cake batter, omitting the spices.
Flour the nuts before adding them to the batter.
Fold in the chopped almonds and almond extract.
Bake and finish
Bake according to spice cake instructions.
Once cooled, cover the cake with boiled icing.
Sprinkle the top with almond strips.
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.
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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
- Chopped almonds
- Add crunch and a nutty texture throughout the cake.
- Almond extract
- Adds a concentrated almond aroma to the batter.
The step that matters
Flouring the nuts before folding them in. A light coating of flour helps the chopped almonds distribute evenly and resist sinking to the bottom of the batter during baking.
“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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