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Dessert

Love Cakes

Love Cakes are almond-based cakes made by beating egg whites with sugar and almonds, then baking until lightly browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Love 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. Blanch and finely pound the sweet and bitter almonds.

  2. Beat the egg whites until very dry.

  3. Gradually add the sugar, one teaspoon at a time, while continuing to beat the egg whites.

  4. Gently stir in the pounded almonds.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto white paper, about 1 inch apart.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until they do not darken.

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

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

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

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

  3. Egg + almondtop 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

Egg whites
Whipped to a dry foam that gives the cakes their light, airy structure.
Pulverized sugar
Stabilizes the whipped whites and adds sweetness and a crisp, set texture when baked.
Sweet almonds
Provide the bulk of the almond flavour and body, giving the cakes a tender crumb.
Bitter almonds
Add a concentrated, aromatic almond flavour in small amount.

The step that matters

Baking until they do not darken. Baking slowly at a low temperature dries and sets the meringue-like mixture without browning it. Higher heat would brown the sugar and almonds before the centres are set, changing the colour and flavour.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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