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Dessert

Venice Cakes

A raspberry cake with butter, flour, eggs, and icing made from crushed raspberries and icing sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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.

  6. Turn the cake onto a sieve and let it cool.

Fill and ice

  1. Once cool, cut the cake in half.

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

  3. Cover with the other half.

  4. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and mix with enough sieved raspberries to achieve a thick cream consistency.

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

Cut and decorate

  1. Cut into fancy shapes like diamonds or crescents.

  2. Use white royal icing 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.
Butter
Melted into the batter to add richness and a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure of the sponge as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the sponge rise.
Crushed raspberries
Add moisture and fruity acidity to the filling.
Icing sugar
Sweetens the raspberry icing and thickens it into a cream.

The step that matters

Baking the sponge briefly. Baking time is short, so the sponge can dry out or over-brown quickly. Checking early keeps it moist enough to fold and fill without cracking.

“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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