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Dessert

Almond Layer Cake

A layered almond cake with a sugar‑water filling and almond topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 Layer 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 batter

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

  2. Cream the butter in a bowl, then gradually add the sugar.

  3. Slowly mix in the milk, alternating with the flour.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  5. Divide the batter into two pans.

Top and bake

  1. Bake one pan plain.

  2. Sprinkle the other pan with sliced almonds.

  3. Dust the other pan with powdered sugar.

  4. Bake both pans for 12 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, boil 1 cup of sugar with ½ cup of water.

  2. Beat in the stiff egg white.

  3. Add chopped almonds.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, lifting the layers as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb soft and moist.
Egg whites
Trap air when beaten, adding lightness and helping the cake set.
Milk
Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stir them in gently with a spatula so the air bubbles they hold are not knocked out. Those bubbles are what make the layers light, and overmixing deflates them and produces 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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