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Dessert

Almond Icing for Cakes

A sweet almond icing made with sugar, ground almonds, eggs, and rose or orange‑flower water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,465 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Icing for Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. In a clean bowl, mix the castor sugar and ground almonds well.

  2. Make a hole in the center, break in the eggs, and add a little rose or orange-flower water.

  3. Mix into a firm paste, adding another egg if necessary.

Roll and place the icing

  1. Dust a clean surface with sugar to prevent sticking.

  2. Turn out the mixture onto the surface.

  3. Roll it out to the size of the cake.

  4. Place the rolled icing on top of the cake.

  5. Smooth it with your hand.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and, with the almonds, gives the paste its body.
Ground sweet almonds
Provide the main bulk and a rich nutty flavor that holds the paste together.
Eggs
Bind the dry ingredients into a paste and add moisture.
Rose or orange-flower water
Adds a delicate floral aroma.

The step that matters

Mixing into a firm paste. Eggs add moisture while sugar and ground almonds absorb it. Too much egg leaves the paste sticky and hard to roll, so add extra egg only when the mixture is still crumbly.

“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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