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Dessert

Almond Sponge Cake

A sponge cake made with sweet and bitter almonds, eggs, flour, powdered sugar, and baking powder, finished with rose water or almond extract icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Almond Sponge Cake

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 Sponge 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.

Prepare

  1. Sift the flour into a bowl.

  2. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds in scalding water, renewing the water as needed until the skins are off. Wash the almonds in cold water and dry them.

  3. Pound the almonds into a fine paste, adding water or egg white to prevent boiling.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately until smooth and thick.

  2. Gradually mix in the powdered sugar and pounded almonds into the eggs.

  3. Gently fold in the flour and baking powder until just combined.

Bake and finish

  1. Grease a deep square pan and pour the mixture into it.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until risen and thoroughly done.

  3. Once cool, cover with icing flavored with rose water or almond extract.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped to trap air, giving the cake its light, risen structure.
Almonds
Ground almond paste adds richness, moisture and a nutty flavor to the crumb.
Fine flour
Forms the set structure of the crumb once baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises in the oven.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps give a fine, tender texture.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs separately until smooth and thick. Whipped egg whites hold the air that lifts a sponge. Under-beaten whites collapse, and folding in the flour too vigorously knocks out that air, leaving a dense cake.

“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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