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A buttery almond and citron-flavored cake baked in a 400°F oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs and sugar together for 15 minutes until thick, then let it stand for a few minutes.

  2. Whisk it again, then add the warmed flour and mix well.

  3. Warm the butter slowly in a saucepan, then pour in the batter while beating.

Bake and finish

  1. Line a mold with buttered paper and dust with sugar, then pour in the batter halfway.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 minutes without browning the outside.

  3. Sift sugar over the cake and place citron-peel slices on top, then bake for an additional 20 minutes.

  4. Remove from the tin and let cool on a sieve.

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Whisked with sugar to trap air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
Butter
Melted into the batter to add richness and a tender crumb.
Sugar
Whisked with the eggs to add sweetness and help build a thick foam.
Flour
Sets the batter's structure as it bakes, giving the cake its body.

The step that matters

Warm the butter slowly, then beat it into the batter. Butter that is too hot can deflate the whisked egg foam, while butter that is too cool may clump; gentle warming and steady beating keep the batter smooth and airy.

“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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