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Preserve

Almond Cream Cake

A layered cake with almond cream filling made from butter, sugar, flour, milk, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, sour cream, and ground almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Cream 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the flour, sweet milk, and egg yolks. Mix well.

  4. Combine the cream of tartar and baking soda.

  5. Fold the mixture into the batter.

  6. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans.

Bake

  1. Bake until golden, about 25-30 minutes.

Make the almond cream

  1. Beat the egg yolks with sugar.

  2. Add the ground almonds and sour cream.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  4. Sweeten to taste.

Assemble

  1. Spread the almond cream mixture between the layers of the cooled cake.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter; whipped whites add lift and structure.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and a tangy flavor that balances the sweetness.
Blanched almonds
Contribute nutty flavor and a fine, rich texture to the almond cream.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the whites' trapped air intact. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam, reducing the lightness of the almond cream.

“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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