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Dessert

Almond and Citron Cake

A cake made with almonds, citron, coconut, brandy, flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Almond and Citron Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the egg yolks, then alternate adding the flour and egg whites.

  3. Stir in the grated coconut, brandy, and baking powder.

  4. Fold in the citron and almonds dusted with a little flour.

  5. Beat the mixture well until thoroughly combined.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.

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 + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Coconut + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together411 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter and whites, folded in, lighten its structure as it bakes.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten framework that holds the cake's structure while baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and turn light.
Almonds
Add body, richness and a nutty flavour, and their oils keep the crumb moist.
Sugar
Creams with the butter for air and adds sweetness and gentle browning.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done. A slow, moderate oven lets the large, dense batter cook through evenly without the outside setting or browning before the centre is baked.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, almond, flour, butter, brandy, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, almond, flour, butter, brandy, egg, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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