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Dessert

Almond Icing

Almond icing made from ground sweet almonds, bitter almonds, egg yolks, egg whites, icing sugar, and flavoring, baked on a cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Almond Icing

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 almond icing

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Add the ground sweet almonds, bitter almonds, egg yolks, icing sugar, and flavoring, mixing until you achieve a stiff consistency.

Top and bake

  1. Brush the top of the cake with egg white.

  2. Spread the almond mixture on top of the cake.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the almond paste is firm and slightly browned.

Finish

  1. Ice the cake with white icing.

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. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ground sweet almonds
Provide the bulk and nutty flavor of the almond paste topping.
Egg whites
Whipped to add lightness, and brushed on top to help the topping set and brown.
Icing sugar
Sweetens the paste and gives it a stiff, spreadable body.
Egg yolks
Bind the almond mixture and add richness to the paste.
Bitter almonds
Add a concentrated almond aroma and sharper flavor to the paste.

The step that matters

Baking the almond paste. The paste should be baked just until firm and lightly browned. Too little heat leaves it soft, while overbaking dries it out and darkens it too much, since sugar and proteins brown quickly in the oven.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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