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Dessert

Russian Cake

A layered butter cake with almond paste and apricot jam.

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 cake

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

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

  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Add vanilla flavoring.

  5. Sift the flour and gently stir it along with the water into the mixture.

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

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

  8. Bake both cakes for about 25 minutes.

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

Make the almond paste and jam

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

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

  3. Boil 3 tablespoons of apricot jam with 1 tablespoon of water and strain it through a wire sieve.

  4. Brush the almond paste lining with the jam.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cut the cake into long strips and alternate packing them in the tin with pink and white layers, brushing with jam between each layer.

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

  3. Let it stand for at least an hour.

  4. 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 cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Provide structure and richness, binding the batter as it sets in the oven.
Self-raising flour
Forms the cake's structure, and its raising agent lifts the batter as it bakes.
Ground almonds
Make the almond paste, adding moisture and a dense, chewy texture to the lining.
Apricot jam
Brushed between layers and on top, adding sweetness and moisture that helps the layers stick.

The step that matters

Cooling the cakes before assembly. Cutting and stacking warm cake crumbles and smears the layers. Cooling fully lets the crumb firm up so the strips hold their shape, and the extra hour of standing lets the almond paste and jam settle.

Swap the apricot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, 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, flour, sugar, 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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