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Dessert

Almond Sponge Cake

A light cake made with fine flour, sweet and bitter almonds, eggs, powdered sugar, and baked until risen.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Almond Sponge Cake

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 ↓

Almond Sponge Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Sift the flour into a bowl.

  2. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds in scalding water, renewing the water as needed until the skins are off. Wash the almonds in cold water and dry them.

  3. Pound the almonds into a fine paste, adding water or egg white to prevent boiling.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately until smooth and thick.

  2. Gradually mix in the powdered sugar and pounded almonds into the eggs.

  3. Gently fold in the flour and baking powder, stirring lightly.

  4. Grease a deep square pan and pour the mixture into it.

Bake and ice

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until risen and thoroughly done.

  2. Once cool, cover with icing flavored with rose water or almond extract.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  3. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Eggs
Whipped whites and yolks trap air, giving the cake its light, sponge-like structure.
Fine flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that sets the crumb once baked.
Sweet almonds
Pounded into a paste, they add moisture, richness and nutty flavour to the crumb.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, more aromatic almond flavour to the cake.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps stabilise the whipped eggs.

The step that matters

Folding in the flour and baking powder. Overmixing after the flour goes in develops gluten and knocks out the air beaten into the eggs, leading to a dense, tough cake. Stir lightly and only until combined.

“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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