Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cream Pies
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cake layers
Combine two cups of white sugar, 2 cups of flour, 6 eggs separate, 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar with the flour, ½ teaspoon of soda dissolved in 2 tablespoonfuls of boiling water.
Bake the mixture in 4 jelly cake pans.
Make the custard
Heat one pint of milk to boil in a farina boiler.
When boiling, stir in ¾ cup of flour or a tablespoonful of cornstarch made smooth with a little milk.
Add yolks of 2 eggs, ¾ cup of sugar, and a little vanilla.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Cake | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Builds the cake structure and sets the crumb as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Add structure, richness, and moisture to the cake and custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and custard and softens the crumb.
- Cream of tartar
- Reacts with the soda to produce lift in the batter.
- Soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to help the cake rise.
- Milk (in the method)
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens when heated.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour or cornstarch into boiling milk. Starch must be smoothed first and added to boiling milk while stirring, so the granules disperse evenly. Otherwise they clump, and the custard stays lumpy and fails to thicken properly.
“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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