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Dessert

German Cake

A cake made from eggs, sugar, lemon, stale bread, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

German Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs separately.

Make the batter

  1. Add the sugar, lemon rind, and lemon juice to the eggs and mix well.

  2. Fold in the grated stale bread and chopped almonds.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased cake pan.

Bake

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until set and lightly golden.

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. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + almondtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together858 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 setting as the batter bakes, holding the crumb together.
Grated stale white bread
Adds body and a light, tender crumb while soaking up moisture from the eggs.
Blanched almonds
Add richness, texture and a nutty flavour that gives the cake substance.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and contributes to browning on the surface.
Lemon rind and juice
Add bright aroma and acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar.

The step that matters

Bake until set and lightly golden. The batter is held up only by beaten eggs, so it must bake until the proteins have set throughout. Pulling it too early can leave a wet, sunken centre, while overbaking dries the crumb and darkens the surface too far.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Peasfits about as well
  4. Chickpeafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, lemon, bread. 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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