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Dessert

Venice Cakes

Venice Cakes are layered cakes with raspberry filling and white royal icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓

Venice 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 sponge

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the eggs and sugar together until creamy.

  3. Add the melted butter, flour, and baking powder; stir well.

  4. Spread the mixture on a buttered baking tin.

  5. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden.

Fill and ice

  1. Turn the cake onto a sieve to cool, then cut in half.

  2. Spread one half with crushed raspberries and dredge with caster sugar.

  3. Cover with the other half.

  4. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add enough sieved raspberries to flavor and achieve a thick cream consistency.

  5. Pour the icing over the top of the cake and let it set.

Finish

  1. Once set, cut into fancy shapes.

  2. Use white royal icing in a piping bag to decorate as desired.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour 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

Eggs
Beaten with sugar to trap air, giving the sponge its light structure.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that sets the sponge's structure as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and a tender crumb to the sponge.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the sponge rise in the oven.
Raspberries
Add tartness and fruity aroma to the filling and icing.
Icing sugar
Dissolves into the raspberry juice to make a thick, sweet icing that sets smooth.

The step that matters

Bake until just golden. Overbaking dries out the thin sponge and makes it brittle, so it will crack when cut in half. Watch the color closely within the 10 to 15 minute window.

“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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