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Dessert

Eclair Cakes

A baked pastry shaped like eclairs, filled with whipped cream and frosted with chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Eclair Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the eclairs

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, and baking powder until smooth.

  3. Spoon the batter onto a baking sheet to form eclairs and bake until golden.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form.

  2. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until light and fluffy.

  3. Combine the whipped cream and beaten egg whites, sweetening and flavoring to taste.

Fill and frost

  1. Fill the baked eclairs with the cream mixture.

  2. For the frosting, combine cornstarch, milk, egg, sugar, and grated chocolate in a saucepan.

  3. Boil the mixture until thick, then frost the filled eclairs.

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

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

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the baked batter's shape.
Eggs
Add structure and richness to the batter and help it set as it bakes.
Heavy cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it gives the filling its light, airy body and moisture.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they add lightness and volume to the filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the frosting mixture as it boils.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the eclairs rise and turn light.

The step that matters

Boil the frosting until thick. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil. Stopping early leaves the frosting runny, and it will not hold on the filled eclairs. Stir constantly so the starch does not scorch on the pan base.

“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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