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Dessert

French Cream Cake

A layered cake with a sweet cream filling made from milk, eggs, sugar, and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

French Cream Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix powdered sugar, baking powder, flour, and eggs.

  3. Add water and combine until smooth.

  4. Divide the batter into two layers and bake until golden.

Make the cream filling

  1. For the cream filling, heat milk to near boiling.

  2. Mix cornstarch with a little cold milk and add to the hot milk.

  3. In another bowl, combine beaten eggs and sugar, then add to the milk mixture.

  4. Boil until thickened, then cool.

  5. Stir in vanilla and melted butter.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the cream filling between the layers and sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

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.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 to the batter and help bind the cake as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake layers rise.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk so the cream filling sets smooth and spreadable.
Butter
Adds richness and a soft, tender texture to the cream filling.
Milk
Forms the base of the cream filling, which thickens with heat.

The step that matters

Boil until thickened, then cool. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil, and the egg mixture must be cooked through while stirring so it does not scramble. Cooling lets the filling set to a spreadable consistency.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, egg, milk, butter):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, egg, milk, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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