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Dessert

Genoa Cake

A fruit and nut cake with almonds, currants, cherries, sultanas, and lemon rind, baked at 300°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Genoa Cake

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 ↓

Genoa Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Clean the currants and sultanas.

  2. Sift the flour.

  3. Cut the cherries into 3 pieces.

  4. Blanch the almonds.

  5. Cut half of the almonds into small pieces and the rest in half.

  6. Cut the peel into very thin strips.

  7. Grate the lemon rind.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add a little of the beaten egg and a little flour until mixed to a smooth paste.

  3. Beat well for 20 minutes.

  4. Stir in the fruit until well mixed.

  5. Add the baking powder. Do not beat after adding the baking powder.

  6. Stir gently until well mixed.

Bake and keep

  1. Pour into a greased tin.

  2. Lay the half almonds on top.

  3. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours. When it has risen, lay a greased paper on top to prevent burning.

  4. Keep it for a week before using.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and moisture as the cake sets.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises in the oven.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light texture when creamed with butter.
Currants
Add sweetness, chewiness and fruit flavour throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Do not beat after adding the baking powder. Beating after the baking powder is added knocks out the gas it has produced and develops gluten in the flour, leading to a tough, dense cake instead of a light one.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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