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Dessert

Victoria Sandwiches

A sandwich made from baked batter, split and filled with marmalade.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Victoria Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Gradually add the flour and pounded sugar, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the eggs, which should be whisked beforehand.

  4. Beat the mixture for about 10 minutes.

Bake and assemble

  1. Butter a Yorkshire pudding tin and pour in the batter.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 20 minutes.

  3. Let it cool, then spread one half with marmalade.

  4. Place the other half on top and press gently together.

  5. Cut into long finger pieces and arrange on a glass dish to serve.

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. Sugar + buttertop 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

Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and moisture as the cake sets in the oven.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the sponge together as it bakes.
Pounded sugar
Adds sweetness and, creamed with butter, helps create a light, aerated texture.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture for about 10 minutes. Long beating incorporates air into the creamed butter and sugar and then the eggs, which lifts the sponge. Under-beating leaves a dense cake, while the batter needs to be mixed evenly without overworking the flour.

“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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