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Dessert

Almond Simnel Cake

A fruit cake with almond paste layers, flavored with citrus peel and nutmeg, baked in a moderate oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Almond Simnel Cake

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.

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Mix ground almonds, sugar, 2 eggs, and a few drops of almond extract until well combined to make almond paste.

  2. Roll the almond paste into two rounds, one for the middle and one for the top of the cake.

Make the cake batter

  1. Beat butter and sugar together until creamy, about 10 minutes.

  2. Gradually add the remaining 3 eggs to the butter mixture, mixing well.

  3. Stir in baking powder, currants, lemon peel, citron peel, orange peel, and flour until just combined.

Bake

  1. Line a cake tin with buttered paper.

  2. Pour half of the cake mixture into the tin.

  3. Place one round of almond paste on top.

  4. Add the remaining cake mixture.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

  6. After baking, place the second round of almond paste on top and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 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

Eggs
Bind the almond paste and enrich the batter, giving structure as the cake sets.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Ground almonds
Add moisture and a dense, moist texture to the cake and the almond paste layers.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light texture.

The step that matters

Add the second almond paste round after the first bake. Placing the paste on top only after the cake has partly baked lets the batter set underneath, so the paste stays on the surface instead of sinking into the batter.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, nutmeg, sugar, lemon, almond):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, nutmeg, sugar, lemon, almond. 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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