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Dessert

Cream Cake

A layered cake with a sweet milk and sugar filling, baked from a batter of eggs, flour, 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

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 3 eggs with 3 tablespoons of water.

  3. Add 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, mixing well.

  4. Gradually incorporate 1½ cups of flour until smooth.

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

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, heat 1 pint of milk and 1 cup of sugar in a double boiler until boiling.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat 2 eggs and add to the boiling milk mixture.

  3. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in a little milk and stir into the mixture along with a small piece of butter.

  4. Boil while stirring frequently until thickened.

Assemble

  1. Let the filling cool, then spread it between the cake layers.

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
Beaten eggs add structure to the batter and help set the custard filling.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and filling and contributes to browning.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture so the filling sets as it boils.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the filling, adding richness and body.

The step that matters

Boil while stirring frequently until thickened. Cornstarch needs to reach a boil to fully thicken, and constant stirring prevents the milk and egg mixture from scorching or lumping on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the vanilla

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