Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Custard Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix together a pound of sifted flour and a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar.
Divide the butter into four parts; mix one part with the flour and make dough.
Roll the dough out, and fold in the remaining three parts of butter by rolling three more times.
Set the dough aside in a cool place until the custard is ready.
Make the custard
Beat the yolks of eight eggs lightly; gradually stir into a pint of rich cream, adding three ounces powdered white sugar, grated nutmeg, and ratafia, peach-water, or lemon essence to taste.
Pour custard into a deep dish; place it in an iron baking pan or Dutch oven half full of boiling water, and bake for 15 minutes.
Cool the custard.
Bake and assemble
Roll out the dough into a thin sheet; cut into small round cakes about the size of a dollar, and bake them on flat tins.
When baked, spread some of the cakes thickly with custard, and lay others on top, fitting them closely like lids.
Optionally bake the dough in patty-pans like shells, and pour custard into them after they come out of the oven.
If custard is baked in the dough, it will be clammy and heavy at the bottom.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Nutmeg | 1 tsp ground (2.2g) | 12 |
| Water | 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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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
- Butter
- Folded into the dough in layers, it makes the cakes flaky and tender.
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the cream into a set custard.
- Flour
- Forms the dough that holds the cakes together.
- Cream
- Gives the custard its richness and smooth body.
- Powdered loaf-sugar
- Sweetens the dough and softens its texture.
The step that matters
Keep custard out of the dough. Custard baked inside the dough becomes wet and heavy at the bottom, so it should be baked separately and added after the cakes are baked and cooled.
“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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