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Dessert

Cocoanut and Almond Cake

A baked cake made with coconut, almonds, powdered sugar, butter, egg whites, milk, lemon, nutmeg, and rose water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Cocoanut and Almond Cake

Why it works: Nutmeg and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cocoanut and Almond 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice and grated peel, and nutmeg; mix well.

  4. Alternately add the milk, egg whites, and flour to the mixture.

  5. Swiftly and lightly stir in the grated coconut.

  6. Divide the batter into four jelly-cake tins and bake until golden.

Make the almond filling

  1. For the filling, blanch the almonds, let them cool and dry.

  2. Pound the almonds in a mortar, adding rose-water gradually.

  3. Reserve about two dozen almonds to shred for the top.

Assemble and finish

  1. Mix the almond paste into the icing after it is made.

  2. Spread the icing between the cooled cakes, making the top layer thicker.

  3. Once the top layer has stiffened, stick the shredded almonds closely over it.

  4. Set the cake in the oven to harden, but do not let it scorch.

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. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whisked stiff and folded in, they add lift and an airy, light crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together once baked.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps give a fine texture.
Sweet almonds
Pounded into the icing, they add nutty flavor and body.

The step that matters

Set the cake in the oven to harden, but do not let it scorch.. Gentle heat sets the icing and dries the shredded almond topping without browning it, since sugars and proteins scorch quickly at high heat.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, egg, milk, nutmeg, almond. 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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