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Dessert

Almond Cake

A layered almond cake with custard filling and white frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond 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 batter

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

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

  3. Add the milk and 3 cups of flour alternately, beating well after each addition.

  4. Sift the baking powder with the remaining flour and add it along with the beaten egg whites, mixing alternately.

  5. Divide the batter into layers.

Bake and make the filling

  1. Bake until golden.

  2. Make a soft custard by heating 1 pint of milk with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and the egg yolk, sweetening with sugar and vanilla to taste.

  3. Chop two-thirds of the blanched almonds.

  4. Stir the chopped almonds into the custard.

Assemble and decorate

  1. Spread the filling between the baked layers.

  2. Frost the top and sides with white frosting.

  3. Decorate with the remaining almonds in concentric circles.

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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Beaten whites add air and lift, giving the layers a light, airy structure.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the layers rise and become tender.
Almonds
Add nutty flavor and crunch to the custard filling and decoration.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk custard so it sets into a spreadable filling.

The step that matters

Stir the chopped almonds into the custard. The custard must be thick enough to spread before the almonds are added; if it is too thin, the filling will run out between the layers once assembled.

“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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