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Dessert

Philadelphia Cakes

A sweet almond cake baked with powdered sugar, corn flour, bitter almonds, eggs, and rum, finished with a rum and orange icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond 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 ↓

Philadelphia Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the powdered sugar, corn flour, and ground bitter almonds together.

  2. Gradually add the eggs and rum, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Pour the mixture into well-buttered shallow tins dredged with powdered sugar.

Bake and ice

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.

  2. Once cooled, ice with water icing mixed with rum and orange juice or essence.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

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

  4. Corn + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together586 recipes

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

  5. Rum + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together801 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure and lift as they set the cake's crumb.
Corn flour
Gives a fine, tender crumb and body to the batter.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake and contributes to its soft, fine texture.
Ground bitter almonds
Add nutty aroma and richness, and moisture to the crumb.
Rum
Adds aroma and moisture to the batter and flavours the icing.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs gradually. Adding eggs one at a time and mixing well after each keeps the batter smooth and emulsified, so it bakes evenly and holds air for a light crumb.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, flour, almond, egg, rum. 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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