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Dessert

A Cake Without Butter

A simple cake made from eggs, flour, bitter almond extract, and optional citron slices, baked without butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

A Cake Without Butter

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

Mix the batter

  1. Beat the eggs well in a mixing bowl.

  2. Add the flour to the eggs and mix until combined.

  3. Flavor the mixture with bitter almond extract.

  4. If desired, fold in thin slices of citron.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a mold and bake in the preheated oven.

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. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs
Provide structure and lift, since beaten eggs trap air that expands and sets as the cake bakes.
Flour
Provides structure, setting as the proteins and starches cook to hold the cake together.
Bitter almond extract
Adds the characteristic almond aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs well. Beating incorporates air into the eggs, and that trapped air is what gives the cake its rise and light crumb. Under-beaten eggs give a denser cake.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Milletfits about as well
  3. Macadamia nutfits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour. 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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