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Dessert

Almond Cake

A baked cake made from blanched sweet almonds, bitter almonds, sugar, brandy, eggs, orange‑flower water, butter, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Cake

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

  1. Blanch and pound the sweet and bitter almonds with orange-flower water until a paste forms.

  2. Beat the butter in a bowl until creamy, then gradually add the sugar.

  3. Grease a cake pan and dust it with bread crumbs.

Make the batter

  1. Whisk the egg yolks separately for 30 minutes.

  2. Whisk the egg whites separately for 30 minutes.

  3. Add the yolks to the almond paste and sugar.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  5. Pour the batter into the pan.

Bake and cool

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 3 hours.

  2. Cool gradually by leaving it at the oven's mouth.

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Brandy + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Ground into a paste that gives the cake its dense, moist body and nutty flavor.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites provide lift and an airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps tenderize the crumb as it creams with the butter.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, creating a tender texture and smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Whites hold air that gives the cake its rise. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, so fold gently with a spatula to keep the batter light.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, brandy, egg, butter, bread. 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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