Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Almond Custard 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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the egg yolks and mix in the sugar until well combined.
Add the chopped sweet and bitter almonds to the mixture.
Stir in the sour cream and flavoring until smooth.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the almond mixture.
Bake and assemble
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Once cooled, layer jelly between the cake layers as desired.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,130 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Eggs
- Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks give the cake lift and an airy structure, while yolks add richness.
- Sweet almonds
- Ground almonds provide the main body and a moist, tender crumb.
- Bitter almonds
- Adds a concentrated almond aroma and flavor to the batter.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and a slight tang that keeps the crumb tender.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks blend smoothly into the mixture.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites trap air that makes the cake rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates the batter and yields a dense cake.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, cream):
- Almondthe original
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Chestnutfits less well
- Pecansfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cream. 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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