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Dessert

Russian Cake

A layered cake with almond paste and apricot jam, baked in two pink-colored tins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 608 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Russian Cake

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 sponge

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  2. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then add vanilla.

  3. Sift the flour and stir it and the water lightly into the mixture.

  4. Pour half the batter into a greased and lined flat cake tin.

  5. Color the other half pink and pour it into another prepared cake tin.

  6. Bake both tins in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 25 minutes.

  7. Turn the cakes out onto sugared paper and let them cool.

Make the almond paste

  1. For the almond paste, mix 6 oz. castor sugar, 5 oz. ground almonds, almond essence, vanilla essence, and enough egg to form a stiff paste.

  2. Boil the apricot jam with 1 tablespoon of water and strain it through a sieve.

Assemble and serve

  1. Roll out the almond paste and line an oblong tin, reserving some for the lid.

  2. Brush the almond paste lining with the jam.

  3. Cut the cake into long strips and alternate packing them in the tin, brushing with jam between layers.

  4. Press the layers together, brush the top with jam, and cover with the almond paste lid.

  5. Let it stand for at least an hour.

  6. Loosen the edges with a knife, turn out, and serve whole or sliced.

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. Vanilla + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together608 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the sponge a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, binding the batter as the cake sets in the oven.
Self-raising flour
Forms the cake's structure, and its raising agent lifts the batter as it bakes.
Ground almonds
Give the almond paste its body, nutty flavor and moist, dense texture.
Apricot jam
Adds sweetness and a sticky glaze that helps the layers hold together.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light texture.

The step that matters

Pressing the layers together and resting. Pressing the strips firmly with jam between them lets the layers bind as they stand. Resting for at least an hour lets the jam and almond paste set so the cake slices cleanly.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, vanilla, almond. 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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