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Dessert

Cream Layer Cake

A butter and egg cake with a sweet evaporated milk filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cream Layer Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cake batter

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Add the well-beaten yolks of the eggs and stir well.

  4. Sift the flour with the baking powder three times, then add to the mixture.

  5. Gently stir in the beaten egg whites.

  6. Flavor the batter and pour it into layer cake pans.

Bake and make the filling

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until golden.

  2. For the filling, combine 1 cup granulated sugar, ½ cup evaporated milk, and ¼ cup butter in a saucepan.

  3. Cook over moderate heat until it sheets from the spoon.

  4. Spread the filling between the layers and on top of the cake.

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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + evaporated milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Vanilla and sugar 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
Yolks add richness and structure, while whipped whites lighten the batter and help it rise.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds tenderness and flavor to the cake and filling.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the layers rise and become light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, when cooked with milk and butter, forms the thick filling.
Evaporated milk
Adds moisture and milk solids that thicken and flavor the cooked filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until it sheets from the spoon. Sugar, milk and butter must reach the right concentration to thicken on cooling. Undercooked filling stays runny, while overcooked filling turns grainy or too stiff to spread.

“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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