An environmentally friendly method for the cross aldol reaction of silyl enol ethers and ketene silyl acetal with various aldehydes using montmorillonite K10 is described. Cheap and commercially available montmorillonite K10 can be used without the need of an ion exchange process under solvent-free conditions or in water. Hydrate of aldehydes such as glyoxylic acid can be used directly. Thermal treatment of K10 increased the catalytic activity. The catalytic activity was supposed due to the properties of the structure of K10 and irs inherent Bronsted acidity. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.