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Dessert

New York Cream Cakes

A cake made from a butter‑water‑flour batter, baked in muffin rings, filled with a sweet milk‑egg‑cornstarch cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

New York Cream Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the pastry

  1. Boil the butter and water together.

  2. Stir in the flour while boiling.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

  4. Add the beaten eggs.

  5. Spoon the mixture into muffin rings.

  6. Bake the cakes for 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

Make the cream

  1. For the cream, heat the milk, sugar, and one egg mixed with corn starch and butter.

  2. Boil the cream mixture for a few moments.

  3. Let the cream cool and add vanilla to taste.

Fill and serve

  1. Open the cakes slightly on one side.

  2. Fill the cakes with the cream.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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
Forms the starch-and-protein structure that holds the cakes' hollow shape.
Eggs
Bind the dough and set during baking, helping the cakes rise and firm up.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in both the cakes and the cream.
Milk
Provides the liquid base of the cream and adds moisture and flavour.
Corn starch
Thickens the cream when heated so it holds its shape inside the cakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the cream.

The step that matters

Add the beaten eggs only after the mixture cools. If the hot flour paste receives eggs too soon, the eggs can partly cook and fail to blend smoothly. A smooth, cooled paste lets the eggs emulsify and give the cakes enough structure to rise and stay hollow.

“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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