Why it works: Almond and flour 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. No. 1
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Blanch the almonds and beat them to a paste with rose-water.
Cream the sugar and butter together until smooth.
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.
Sift the flour and set aside.
Mix and bake
Add the flour and eggs alternately to the butter and sugar mixture until fully combined.
Fold in the almond paste and mix well.
Bake immediately.
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.
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Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,465 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Almonds
- Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the cake as a paste.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to add richness and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter to add sweetness and help create a soft texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture; whites beaten to a froth help lighten the batter.
- Flour
- Gives the batter structure as it sets in the oven.
The step that matters
Folding in the almond paste and baking immediately. Overmixing after adding the flour can toughen the cake, and beaten egg whites lose their lift if the batter waits, so bake as soon as the batter is combined.
“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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