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Dessert

Ladies Cake

A light almond cake flavored with rose water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Ladies 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.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the almonds in scalding water.

  2. Pound the blanched almonds in a mortar.

  3. Add rose water a few drops at a time to keep them light.

  4. Cover the pounded almonds.

  5. Set them in a cool place, preferably overnight.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl.

  2. Gradually stir in the pounded almonds.

  3. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  4. Fold the beaten egg whites into the butter and sugar mixture alternately with the sifted flour, adding a little at a time.

  5. Stir the mixture vigorously until well combined.

  6. Pour the batter into a buttered pan.

Bake and cool

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for more than two hours.

  2. Allow the cake to cool gradually.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the cake its light, risen structure.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to hold air and add richness and tenderness.
White sugar
Creamed with butter to add sweetness and help create a tender crumb.
Bitter almonds or peach kernels
Pounded into the batter to add nutty aroma and body.
Rose water
Adds a floral aroma to the almonds and batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while they are stiff; overmixing or deflating them while folding in the flour makes the cake dense and flat. Fold gently, adding flour a little at a time.

“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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