Skip to main content
Dessert

Boston Cream Cakes

Boston Cream Cakes are baked cakes filled with custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Boston Cream Cakes

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.

Make the choux dough

  1. Combine butter and hot water in a large saucepan.

  2. Heat until boiling.

  3. Add sifted flour all at once.

  4. Mix well with a vegetable masher until smooth.

  5. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  6. Add beaten egg yolks.

  7. Add beaten egg whites, baking soda, and salt.

  8. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered baking sheets, spacing about two inches apart.

  9. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes until golden.

Make the custard

  1. Heat ⅔ pint of milk in a double boiler with ⅓ pint of milk.

  2. In a bowl, mix sugar, flour (or corn‑starch), and beaten eggs.

  3. When the milk is nearly boiling, pour in the egg mixture and stir briskly for 3 minutes until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat, add butter, and let cool. Flavor with vanilla or lemon.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once cooled, carefully cut open the sides of the cakes with a knife or scissors.

  2. Fill the cakes with the custard.

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Forms the structure of the cakes as the starch sets during baking.
Eggs
Add structure and help the cakes puff and set as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the dough and custard.
Milk
Provides moisture and body to the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds to its smooth, thick texture.
Baking soda
Helps the cakes rise and brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Stir the custard briskly while it thickens. Egg and starch mixtures can curdle or lump if they get too hot or are not stirred. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly so the starch swells and the eggs thicken the custard smoothly.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, sugar, milk. 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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes