Skip to main content
Dessert

Custard Cake

A layered cake with custard filling and chocolate layers, made from eggs, sugar, milk, flour, butter, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fayette (Mo.). Baptist Church, Ladies of the · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 25 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Custard Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batters

  1. Beat the yolks a little.

  2. Add the sugar and beat fifteen minutes.

  3. Add the three beaten whites and the cup of boiling water, just before adding the flour.

  4. Add the flour with the baking powder.

  5. Add a teaspoon of lemon extract.

  6. Bake in three layers, putting between them.

  7. Add the three whites of eggs, beaten to a stiff froth.

  8. Add six dessertspoons of pulverized sugar to each egg.

  9. Flavor with lemon.

  10. Beat the butter to a cream.

  11. Stir in the sugar.

  12. Beat until light.

  13. Add the milk.

  14. Add the flour, and beat in the whites.

  15. When well-beaten, divide into equal parts.

  16. Into half, grate a cake of sweet chocolate.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake in layers, spread with custard, and alternate the white and dark cakes.

Make the custard

  1. Add a tablespoonful of butter to one pint of milk.

  2. Bring to a boiling heat.

  3. Stir in two eggs beaten with one cup of sugar.

  4. Add two teaspoons corn starch dissolved in a little milk.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

988Calories
29 gProtein
35 gFat
137 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Provide structure and richness, and set the custard and cake as they heat.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the cake rise and become light.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the cake and custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the cake tender and moist.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the custard its body.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs to the hot custard. Egg proteins set when heated, so adding the beaten eggs and sugar too quickly or over too much heat can curdle the custard. Stirring steadily and keeping the heat moderate keeps it smooth, while the cornstarch thickens it as it warms.

“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.

More custard cake recipes

Chocolate 9Almond 6Wine 5Currant 3Strawberry 3 See all 60 →

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipes