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Dessert

Almond Cream Cake

A layered cake made with butter, Cottolene, sugar, milk or water, pastry flour, baking powder, egg whites, sweetened cream, almond extract, sherry, almonds, and cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Almond Cream 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 batter

  1. Cream together the butter and Cottolene.

  2. Add the sugar and mix well.

  3. Alternately mix in the milk or water and the sifted pastry flour with baking powder.

  4. Beat well and fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake in two layers at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Whip the sweetened cream until stiff and flavor with almond extract and sherry.

  3. Add chopped blanched almonds to the cream and spread between and over the layers.

  4. Garnish with cherries.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter and cottolene
Provide fat that gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Pastry flour
Forms the cake's structure once its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the layers rise and stay light.
Egg whites
Trapped air from beating helps the batter rise and sets the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the cake brown and stay moist.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites, which lifts the batter. Stirring vigorously knocks that air out and leaves the layers dense.

“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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