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Dessert

Boston Cream Cakes

Boston Cream Cakes are layered cakes filled with custard made from milk, sugar, flour or cornstarch, eggs, butter, and vanilla or lemon.

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 ↓

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 cakes

  1. In a large saucepan, combine the butter and hot water. Heat until boiling.

  2. Add the sifted flour all at once, and beat with a vegetable masher until smooth.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Then, add the beaten egg yolks, followed by the beaten egg whites, baking soda, and salt.

  4. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart.

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

Make the custard and fill

  1. Once cooled, cut a slit in the side of each cake and fill with the prepared custard.

  2. To make the custard, heat ⅔ pint of milk in a double boiler.

  3. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, flour (or cornstarch), and beaten eggs with ⅓ pint of milk.

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

  5. Remove from heat, add butter, and flavor with vanilla or lemon before filling the 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. 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

Eggs
Provide structure and richness, and set the custard as they heat.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cakes and thickens the filling when used there.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb in the cakes.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as its starch swells and sets with heat.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds creaminess.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the flavor.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg mixture into the milk. Egg proteins set at high heat and can scramble if the mixture overheats or is not stirred. Stirring while it thickens gives a smooth custard, and cornstarch or flour also needs heat and stirring to thicken properly.

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.

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