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Ratafia Cakes

A sweet almond cake made with bitter and sweet almonds, egg whites, and 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 ↓

Ratafia Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the mixture

  1. Beat the bitter and sweet almonds with 4 egg whites in a mortar until fine.

  2. Gradually stir in the pounded loaf sugar and the remaining 9 egg whites.

Shape and bake

  1. Pipe the mixture onto cartridge paper in drops the size of a shilling using a biscuit funnel.

  2. Bake until light brown, then remove from the paper as soon as they are cold.

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

Blanched bitter almonds
Provide the characteristic bitter almond aroma and flavour that defines the ratafia.
Blanched sweet almonds
Supply the bulk of the almond base, adding nutty flavour and body to the mixture.
Egg whites
Whisked into the almond paste to add structure and lightness, helping the drops set and rise.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture hold its shape and brown during baking.

The step that matters

Bake until light brown. Baking only until light brown keeps the drops crisp and dry once cool. Over-baking darkens them and makes them bitter and hard, while under-baking leaves them sticky and likely to stick to the paper.

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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