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Dessert

French Cream Cake

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fayette (Mo.). Baptist Church, Ladies of the · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

French Cream Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cake

  1. Beat one cup of sugar and three eggs together until very light.

  2. Sift one and three-fourths cups of flour with two teaspoons baking powder several times.

  3. Add four tablespoonfuls of boiling water to the batter.

  4. Bake the batter in two cakes.

  5. Turn the cakes out onto a moulding board.

Make the cream

  1. Take nearly one pint of milk and bring it to nearly boiling.

  2. Add two tablespoonfuls of corn starch moistened with a little cold milk to the hot milk.

  3. Add two eggs and nearly one cup of sugar beaten together well to the mixture.

  4. While cooking, stir constantly until the mixture will drop from the spoon without running.

  5. Remove from the stove and add half a cup of melted butter, flavoring to taste.

Assemble

  1. When the cakes are cold, split them with a sharp knife and spread the cream between.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Waternot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Fayette (Mo.). Baptist Church, Ladies of the. 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. See the original page.

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

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

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Corn + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 with sugar to trap air, giving the cake its light, airy crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise and stay tender.
Corn starch
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth cream that holds its shape between the cakes.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture to the cream filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and the cream, and helps the eggs whip to a light foam.

The step that matters

Stir the cream constantly while it cooks. Cornstarch thickens only when heated, and it can settle and form lumps or scorch on the bottom if left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps the cream smooth and evenly thickened before the butter is added.

“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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