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Dessert

Cream Cake II

A layered cake with a sweet cream filling made from eggs, milk, sugar, corn starch, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cream Cake II

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cake

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

  2. Beat eggs in a bowl. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, and water to the eggs and mix until smooth.

  3. Divide batter into two cake pans and bake until golden.

  4. While warm, split the cakes in half.

Make the cream

  1. Beat 1 egg for the cream.

  2. Mix in milk, sugar, corn starch, and butter. Cook the cream mixture over low heat until thickened.

  3. Stir in vanilla extract and let the cream cool.

Assemble

  1. Spread the cooled cream between the split cakes.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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 eggs trap air and, once baked, set the cake's structure.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its body.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and turns light.
Milk
Adds moisture and body to the cream as it thickens.
Corn starch
Thickens the cream mixture when heated, giving it a set, spreadable texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel in the cream.

The step that matters

Cooking the cream mixture over low heat. Corn starch thickens only when heated, but high heat or long cooking can scorch the milk on the bottom of the pan. Gentle, steady heat while stirring lets the starch gelatinize evenly into a smooth, spreadable cream.

“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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