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Dessert

Custard or Cream Cake

A layered cake with a custard filling made from eggs, milk, sugar, 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 together the sugar and butter.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk, then add the dissolved baking soda mixture to the batter.

  3. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth, then fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.

  4. Stir the cream of tartar into the sifted flour, then quickly add the flour mixture to the batter.

Bake the layers

  1. Bake the batter in a 350°F (175°C) oven in layers like a jelly cake.

Make the custard

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

  2. Mix the cornstarch or flour with ½ cup sugar and the yolks of 4 eggs, adding a little cold milk.

  3. Stir this mixture into the boiling milk and cook until thickened.

  4. Set the custard aside to cool.

  5. 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Egg whites
Beaten to a stiff froth, they trap air that lifts and lightens the cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar and batter to release gas for rising.
Cream of tartar
Acid that stabilizes the whipped egg whites and works with the baking soda to help rising.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once mixed with the liquids and set by heat.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth texture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as it cooks in the boiling milk.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Egg yolks and starch must be heated enough to thicken the milk, but overheated yolks can curdle or scramble, leaving a grainy custard.

“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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