Skip to main content
Dessert

Almond Iceing, or Almond Paste

A sweet almond icing made by grinding almonds with sugar, spread over a cake, then baked until dry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Iceing, or Almond Paste

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the icing

  1. Grind the sweet almonds and mix with the loaf sugar as for almond cakes.

Ice and dry

  1. When the cake is three-quarters done, spread the almond mixture over the top.

  2. Allow the cake to cool, then dry the icing in a 300°F (150°C) oven.

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).

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 icing.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the icing and helps it dry to a firm, crisp layer.

The step that matters

Spreading the icing at three-quarters baked. Adding the almond mixture while the cake is partly baked lets it set and dry onto the surface rather than sinking in or burning. Finishing it in a low oven dries the icing gently without over-browning it.

“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.

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes