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Dessert

Lady Baltimore Cake

A layered cake with butter, sugar, flour, egg whites, almond extract, and a walnut‑and‑raisin‑filled frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 993 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Lady Baltimore 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 cake batter

  1. Cream the butter, then gradually add the sugar.

  2. Mix and sift the flour and baking powder, then add alternately with the milk to the butter mixture.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites and almond extract.

  4. Bake in two deep layer cake pans at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

Make the filling and frosting

  1. For the filling and frosting, mix 4 cups sugar and ½ teaspoon cream of tartar with 1 cup cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook until it drops from a wooden spoon like honey.

  3. Add 1 cup of syrup to the beaten whites of 4 eggs.

  4. Return the remaining syrup to the heat and cook until it spins a thread.

  5. Remove from heat and pour over the egg mixture, beating constantly.

  6. As it thickens, add the walnuts, raisins, and vanilla.

Assemble

  1. Spread the mixture between the layers and over the top and sides of the 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. Almond + walnuttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together993 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's rise and shape.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the cake rise and lighten.
Egg whites
Beaten to foam, they add lift and a light, airy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps brown the crust and set the frosting.
Walnuts
Add crunch and nutty flavor to the filling and frosting.

The step that matters

Cook the syrup to the thread stage before pouring it over the whites. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set the frosting. Pouring it in at the wrong stage can leave it runny or grainy. Beat constantly so the whites cook evenly and stay smooth instead of scrambling.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Pistachiofits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Cashew nutfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, flour, egg, almond, cream. 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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