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Dessert

Almond Cakes

Almond cakes are made by pounding almonds with sugar, mixing with egg whites, baking, topping with sliced almonds and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 Cakes

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 the batter

  1. Pound the almonds with the sugar in a mortar and sift through a flour sieve.

  2. In a clean pan, combine the almond‑sugar mixture with the egg whites and beat well.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls onto wafer paper placed on clean baking sheets, spacing them about an inch apart.

  2. Top each with a few sliced almonds and dust lightly with powdered sugar.

  3. If they do not crack sufficiently, lightly brush with clean water before baking.

  4. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until lightly cracked.

Finish

  1. Once cooled, remove the wafer paper from the edges.

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. Sugar + eggtop 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the cakes.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the cakes set and brown in the oven.
Egg whites
Bind the almond and sugar mixture and give the cakes their light structure.

The step that matters

Baking until lightly cracked. Baking in a slow oven dries the surface gradually so it cracks rather than spreading or browning too quickly. If the cakes stay smooth, the water brush helps the surface crack as they bake.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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