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Dessert

Almond Cake

A baked cake made with pulverized sugar, butter, sweet milk, flour, baking powder, egg whites, almond flavor, sweet cream, and chopped blanched almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 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. In a bowl, cream together the pulverized sugar and butter.

  3. Add the sweet milk and mix well.

  4. Sift the flour and baking powder together three times, then gradually add to the mixture.

  5. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the batter.

  6. If desired, add a few drops of almond flavor.

Bake and fill

  1. Pour the batter into layers and bake until golden.

  2. For the filling, mix sweet cream with enough pulverized sugar to make a spreadable paste.

  3. Add the chopped almonds to the filling.

  4. Reserve some almonds to split and use for decoration on top of the cake.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten until stiff, they trap air that lightens the cake and helps it rise.
Butter
Creamed with the sugar, it adds fat that gives the cake a tender crumb and rich flavor.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
Pulverized sugar
Sweetens the cake and, with the butter, helps create a light, creamy base.
Blanched almonds
Chopped fine, they add nutty flavor and texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold air that makes the cake light. Overmixing or deflating them while folding into the batter causes a dense, heavy cake.

“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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