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 ↓
Nut 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the batter
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.
Add milk and mix well.
Gradually stir in flour, then egg whites, chopped nuts, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Add almond extract to flavor the batter.
Bake and finish
Pour batter into greased cake pan and bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Once cooled, frost cake and decorate with whole nut meats.
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.
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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Nuts + almondtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together394 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
- Egg whites
- Trap air and set during baking, giving the cake lift and a light crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter and helps stabilize the egg white foam.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps trap air for a tender texture.
The step that matters
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Baking too long dries out the crumb, while underbaking leaves wet batter in the center that can collapse as it cools. Checking for a clean toothpick shows when the structure has set.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, cream, almond):
- Pistachiofits better
- Hazelnutfits better
- Cashew nutfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, cream, 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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