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Almond Icing for Rich Cakes

Almond icing made from ground almonds, icing sugar, and egg, used to cover rich cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

Almond Icing for Rich Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. Mix the ground almonds and icing sugar with the egg to form a firm paste.

  2. Roll out the paste to about 4 inches thick, to the size needed for your cake.

Dry and finish

  1. Place the rolled icing on the trimmed cake and let it stand to dry for a day.

  2. After drying, cover the cake with sugar icing as per the next recipe.

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. Sugar + eggtop 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

Ground almonds
Provide the bulk and nutty flavour of the paste, giving it body and a firm texture.
Icing sugar
Sweetens the paste and, with the almonds, helps it bind into a workable, firm mass.
Egg
Acts as a binder, helping the almonds and sugar hold together as a firm paste.

The step that matters

Rolling the paste to an even thickness. The paste is firm and dense, so uneven thickness can crack or dry unevenly as it sits. Rolling it evenly and allowing it to dry fully gives a sturdy, smooth layer that holds its shape over the cake.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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