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Dessert

Custard or Cream Cake

A layered cake with a sweet custard filling made from milk, sugar, eggs, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Custard or Cream 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 batter

  1. Cream sugar and butter together.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in sweet milk and add to mixture.

  3. Beat egg whites to stiff froth and fold into mixture.

  4. Stir cream of tartar into sifted flour and quickly add to batter.

Bake the layers

  1. Bake in a 350°F oven in layers like a jelly cake.

Make the custard

  1. Heat 2 cups sweet milk in a double boiler until boiling.

  2. Mix corn starch or flour with ½ cup sugar and stir into boiling milk.

  3. Add egg yolks and a little cold milk, stirring until thickened.

  4. Set aside to cool, then add vanilla or lemon for flavor.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 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 whites
Beaten to stiff froth, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
An acid that stabilizes the whipped egg whites and helps the batter rise.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness.
Corn starch or flour
Thickens the custard as it heats, giving it a smooth, set texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard until thickened. Starch must be fully heated in boiling milk to swell and thicken. Egg yolks scramble if overheated, so keep the custard moving over the double boiler and avoid high heat once the yolks go in.

“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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