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Dessert

Ratafia Cakes

A sweet almond cake made with bitter and sweet almonds, egg whites, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Ratafia Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch and dry the almonds with a napkin.

  2. Finely pound the almonds with the egg whites.

Shape and bake

  1. Mix the almond mixture with the powdered sugar.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto white paper.

  3. Bake in a slow oven (300°F / 150°C) until cold, then remove from paper.

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. Egg + sugartop 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

Bitter almonds
Provide the characteristic almond aroma and flavor of the cake.
Sweet almonds
Supply the bulk of the almond flesh that gives the cakes their body.
Egg whites
Bind the pounded almonds into a paste that holds its shape when baked.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture firm up and dry as it bakes.

The step that matters

Finely pound the almonds with the egg whites. If the almonds are not pounded fine enough, the paste stays grainy and the cakes bake up uneven in texture. A smooth, fully combined paste gives an even crumb and a clean surface.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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