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Dessert

Gateau Des Dames

A French-style almond cake with a fondant icing topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour 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 ↓

Gateau Des Dames

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream the sugar and butter together.

  2. Add the ground almonds and rum to the mixture.

  3. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  4. Sift the flour and gradually add it along with the egg whites to the mixture.

  5. Pour the batter into one or two buttered flat cake tins.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

  2. Once cooled, cover the top and sides with fondant icing and decorate with royal 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 + flourtop 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + rumtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Butter and flour 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

Egg whites
Whisked to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a rich, tender crumb.
Castor sugar
Creamed with butter to aid aeration and add sweetness and gentle browning.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Ground almonds
Add moisture, richness and a nutty flavour to the crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the whisked egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while stiff; overmixing or deflating them when adding the flour makes the cake dense and flat. Add them gently and gradually so the batter keeps its lift in the oven.

“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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