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Dessert

Spanish Cakes

A sweet almond cake made with eggs, sugar, flour, almond paste, orange flower water, rose water, mountain wine, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Spanish Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Whisk the eggs until frothy.

  2. Grease a baking pan with butter.

Make the batter

  1. Gradually mix in 2 lb. of sugar, 1 lb. of dried flour, and 4 lb. of almond paste.

  2. Add 4 tablespoons of orange-flower water, 4 tablespoons of rose-water, ⅓ cup of mountain wine, and 4 oz. of pounded cinnamon.

  3. Mix all ingredients for 30 minutes.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into the pan and bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) until set.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 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

Eggs
Whisked eggs add air and structure, helping the cake rise and set.
Almonds
Almond paste provides the main body, richness and moisture of the cake.
Dried flour
Flour gives the batter structure so it sets firm when baked.
Double-refined sugar
Sugar sweetens the cake and helps brown its surface and keep it moist.

The step that matters

Bake in a cool oven until set. Eggs and flour set as they heat, so a slow, gentle oven helps the cake cook through evenly without over-browning or drying out on the outside.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, almond, rose, wine, cinnamon):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, almond, rose, wine, cinnamon. 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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