Skip to main content
Dessert

Everlasting Cake

A dense almond and citron cake baked at 400°F, finished by turning slices and cooling in a tin box.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and flour 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 ↓

Everlasting Cake

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Heat the egg yolks and sugar together.

Make and bake the cake

  1. Add the blanched almonds, sliced citron, and whipped egg whites.

  2. Mix in the sifted flour until combined.

  3. Pour the batter into well-greased dripping pans, about 1 ½ inches thick.

  4. Bake until done, then cut slices 1 inch thick across the cake.

Finish and store

  1. Turn each slice on its side and return to the oven for a short time.

  2. Once cooled, store in a tin box.

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 + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Egg yolks
Enriches the batter with fat and helps bind it to a tender crumb.
Egg whites
Whipped to trap air, giving the cake lift and an open structure.
Sifted flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Blanched almonds
Add body, richness and a chewy texture to the cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks thicken when heated.
Sliced citron
Adds candied fruit flavour and moisture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Turning each slice on its side and drying it in the oven. Returning slices to the oven dries them out so they keep their texture for storage. Too long and they become hard, too short and they stay soft and may spoil sooner.

“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.

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes