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 ↓
Almond Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a steady oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a clean bowl, break the eggs and add the warm sugar. Beat until thick like cream.
Mix in the melted butter, ground sweet and bitter almonds, sifted flour, and essence of lemon with a spoon.
Grease a cake mold and fill it with the mixture.
Bake
Bake for 1.5 to 2 hours, taking care to prevent burning by placing 3 or 4 layers of newspaper under the mold and wrapping it around the sides with twine.
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.
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Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Eggs
- Beaten with sugar, they trap air that gives the cake its light structure.
- Ground sweet almonds
- Provide the bulk and nutty flavour and a moist, tender crumb.
- Flour
- Sets the structure of the cake as the eggs and heat firm the batter.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps the beaten eggs hold their volume.
The step that matters
Beating the eggs and sugar until thick. Beating incorporates air into the eggs, which is the main source of lift in this unleavened cake. Under-beaten batter bakes dense and flat.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar, butter, flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, butter, flour, 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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