frangipane refers to an almond-flavored pastry cream used to garnish cakes and to fill pastries and tarts of all kinds. An abundance of recipes demonstrates that any number of aromatics besides almonds can flavor the pastry cream (flour, butter, sugar, milk, whole eggs, egg yolks, and salt); Prosper Montagné’s Larousse gastronomique (1938) does not even mention almonds. However, Ali-Bab’s Gastronomie pratique (1928) distinguishes between basic pastry cream made with egg yolks and vanilla, and frangipane cream made with whole eggs, additional yolks, and crushed macarons. See macarons.
