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Dessert

Cream Cakes

A small, puffed cake made from a butter‑flour batter, baked in a pastry bag, then filled with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cream Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. Put water, sugar, salt, and butter in a saucepan over heat. When butter melts, remove from heat; add flour and beat until smooth paste.

  2. Return to heat and stir vigorously until paste leaves the sides of the pan; then remove from heat and let partly cool.

  3. Add eggs one at a time, beating each for some time before adding the next. When all eggs are added, beat until the batter is no longer stringy.

  4. Let the batter rest for an hour or two (optional).

Shape and bake

  1. Fill a pastry bag with a ½-inch opening tube. Press the batter through to form balls 1½–2 inches in diameter. A spoon can be used but gives poorer shape.

  2. Brush the tops of the balls with egg.

  3. Bake in a slack oven slowly for about 40 minutes. Cakes should feel light when done and puffed high.

Fill and finish

  1. When cool, make an incision in the side and fill with cream filling (as for layer cakes). Whipped egg whites may be added to the filling if a thinner, lighter texture is desired.

  2. Optional: fill with jam and a little whipped cream, dip tops in boiled sugar, and sprinkle with chopped burnt almonds.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

684Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
108 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 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
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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 Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour 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

Flour
Forms the starch structure that sets the paste and holds the puffed cakes together.
Eggs
Provide structure and lift, so the cakes puff and hold their shape as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the paste.
Water
Turns to steam in the oven, helping the cakes puff and become hollow.

The step that matters

Beating in the eggs. Eggs must be added one at a time and beaten well so the paste absorbs them evenly. Under-beaten batter stays stringy and will not puff properly, while the right consistency lets steam lift the cakes.

“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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