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Dessert

Russian Sandwich

A layered cake made from eggs, sugar, butter, flour, and almond extract, topped with chocolate cream and colored icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Russian Sandwich

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the eggs and castor sugar together until thick.

  3. Add the melted butter, then the flour and almond extract.

  4. Pour half of the mixture into a greased sandwich tin.

  5. Color the remaining half with carmine and pour it into another greased tin.

  6. Bake for about 10 minutes.

  7. Turn out onto a sieve to cool.

Fill and ice

  1. Cut a thin layer off the top of one cake and spread with chocolate cream.

  2. Place the colored cake on top.

  3. Cover with water icing and cut into fancy shapes.

  4. Decorate with royal icing.

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. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  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

Eggs
Beaten with sugar to trap air, giving the sponge its lift and structure.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the beaten eggs hold a thick, airy foam.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender, rich crumb.
Coombs' flour
Forms the cake's structure as the batter sets in the oven.
Almond extract
Adds aroma to the sponge.
Carmine
Gives the colored layer its pink color.

The step that matters

Turn out onto a sieve to cool. The cakes must cool fully before the chocolate cream and icing go on. Warm sponge is fragile and crumbles, and warm filling or icing melts and slides off.

“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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