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Glazed Gènoa-cakes

A light, almond-flavored cake glazed with apricot marmalade and a sugar glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond 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 ↓

Glazed Gènoa-cakes

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 batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Gradually add the salt, lemon zest, flour, and pounded almonds.

  4. Mix in the potato flour and melted butter, then stir in the cognac.

  5. Butter a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper, then pour in the batter.

Bake and cool

  1. Smooth the top to a thickness of ½ inch and bake for 40 minutes.

  2. Once baked, turn the cake out onto a paper-covered table to cool.

  3. Cut the cooled cake into strips, about 4 inches long.

Finish and glaze

  1. Spread a thin layer of apricot marmalade on one side of each strip.

  2. Dust with icing sugar and prepare the glaze with rum, flu sugar, and water.

  3. Smooth the glaze over the marmalade and let it dry before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Almond + potatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together337 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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, sponge-like structure.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten that set the cake's crumb once baked.
Granulated sugar
Whips with the eggs to hold air and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
Unsalted butter
Melted into the batter, it adds richness and a tender, moist crumb.
Almonds
Pounded into the batter, they add fat, flavour and a moist, dense texture.
Apricot marmalade
Spread thinly on the strips, it adds sweetness and acidity and helps the glaze adhere.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs and sugar. The eggs must be beaten until light and fluffy, since the trapped air is what raises a génoise. Under-beaten batter bakes flat and dense.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

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