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Dessert

Cream Cake Simple

A light cake with a sweet cream filling made from eggs, milk, sugar, corn starch, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Cream Cake Simple

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, beat the eggs, then add flour, sugar, baking powder, and water. Mix until smooth.

  3. Divide the batter into two cake pans and bake until golden.

  4. Remove from the oven and split the cakes while warm.

Make the cream and assemble

  1. For the cream, combine 1 egg, milk, sugar, corn starch, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

  4. Let the cream cool, then spread it between the split cakes.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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
Beaten eggs add structure and help the cake batter rise and set when baked.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake crumb once heated and set.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes rise in the oven.
Corn starch
Thickens the cream as it heats, giving it a smooth, spreadable body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream and adds richness and softness.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the cream and gives it a smooth, rich texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the cream over low heat. Cornstarch thickens only when heated enough to swell its granules, but scorching or high heat can burn the milk and make the cream lumpy. Stirring constantly over low heat keeps it smooth as it thickens.

“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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