Skip to main content
Dessert

Victoria Cakes

A butter, sugar, egg, brandy, Brazil nut, and ground rice cake topped with glace cherries and sprinkled with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,127 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Victoria 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. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl using a wooden spoon.

  2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  3. Blanch the Brazil nut kernels, then pound them with the ground rice until fine.

  4. Stir the nut mixture into the other ingredients.

  5. Add the brandy and mix everything well.

Fill and bake

  1. Butter small round tins and fill each with the mixture.

  2. Place a glace cherry in the center of each cake.

  3. Sprinkle with sugar and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 40 minutes.

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. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cakes a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Brazil-nut kernels
Provide body and a moist, rich texture in place of much of the flour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the creamed mixture hold air, aiding a light crumb.
Ground rice
Adds a fine, slightly crisp body that gives the cake texture.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Adding eggs gradually lets each one emulsify fully into the creamed butter and sugar. If added too quickly, the mixture can curdle and lose the air it holds, leading to a denser cake.

“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.

You might also like

Rice CakeRice Cake120 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipesRice CreamRice Cream43 recipesRice JellyRice Jelly42 recipes