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Dessert

Aval Nut Cakes

A walnut cake with a walnut icing, flavored with brandy and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Aval Nut Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cake

  1. In a bowl, combine sugar, butter, and flour; rub together until smooth.

  2. Add beaten eggs, chopped walnuts, brandy, baking powder, and a little milk; mix well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a square tin and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes.

Ice and finish

  1. Once cooled, cut into diamond shapes.

  2. For the icing, mix icing sugar, chopped walnuts, brandy, and enough egg white to achieve a stiff consistency.

  3. Place a walnut in the center of each cake.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
Icing sugar
Dissolves into a smooth, sweet icing that holds its shape when stiffened with egg white.

The step that matters

Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes. Baking at this high heat for the stated time sets the cake before it dries out. Opening the oven early can cause the batter to sink, so check only near the end of the time.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Hazelnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg, brandy, milk. 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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