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Dessert

Almond Icing, Eoe Cakes

A paste of blanched almonds, loaf sugar, and egg yolks used as icing for cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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, Eoe Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA very cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond paste

  1. Pound the blanched almonds and loaf sugar finely in a mortar.

  2. Pass the mixture through a moderately coarse wire sieve.

  3. Mix the almond-sugar mixture with the yolks of eggs to form a paste of moderate consistency.

Ice and finish the cake

  1. Spread the almond icing over the top of the baked cake.

  2. Dry the almond icing before the fire or in a cool oven.

  3. Once cold, ice the cake with sugar 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. 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

Blanched sweet almonds
Form the bulk of the paste and give it a rich, nutty body.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the icing and helps it bind into a smooth paste with the almonds.
Egg yolks
Bind the ground almonds and sugar into a cohesive paste and add richness.

The step that matters

Drying the almond icing before sugar icing. Moisture left in the almond layer can soften or dissolve the sugar icing applied on top, causing it to soak in or smear. Drying firms the surface so the second icing stays clean and separate.

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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