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Dessert

Almond Icing

A glaze made from blanched almonds, powdered sugar, and rose water, applied to cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,465 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water over them and removing the skins.

  2. Once dry, pound the almonds into a paste in a mortar, adding rose water as needed.

  3. When the almonds are fine and smooth, gradually mix in the powdered sugar.

Ice the cake

  1. Spread the mixture thickly on your cake.

  2. When nearly dry, cover it with plain icing.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and flavour of the paste once blanched and pounded fine.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the paste and helps it firm into a smooth, spreadable icing.
Egg whites
Add moisture and binding so the almond mixture holds together.

The step that matters

Pounding the almonds fine and smooth. If the almonds stay coarse, the paste will be gritty and will not spread evenly over the cake. Pounding until fine and smooth gives a uniform texture before the sugar is added.

“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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