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Dessert

Vermicelli Cakes

A baked cake made with vermicelli, flour, butter, eggs, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Vermicelli Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vermicelli

  1. Bring one quart of water to a boil.

  2. Drop one pound of vermicelli into the boiling water, stir well, and strain when tender through a sieve.

Make the batter

  1. Add one cup of flour, two teaspoons of Star Crystal Baking Powder, the yolks of three eggs, and one-half cup of melted butter.

  2. Beat the whites of the eggs to a very stiff froth.

  3. Mix the batter thoroughly.

  4. Bake in a hot oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

635Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
96 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + teatop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together703 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Flour + teatop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together449 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Vermicelli
Forms the bulk and body of the cake, giving it a soft, tender crumb.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites lighten it for structure.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, softening the crumb and carrying flavour.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to a very stiff froth. Whipped whites trap air that expands in the oven and lifts the batter. If they are under-beaten they collapse, and the cake comes out dense and flat.

“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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