Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cream Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the dough
In a pot, pour ½ pint of rich cream and add 1 pint of boiling water. Heat over medium until boiling.
Stir in 1 pound of flour until well combined. Let cool.
Once cool, add 9 well-beaten eggs and mix thoroughly.
Make the custard
For the custard, combine 1 pint of rich cream, 3 well-beaten eggs, and a little flour in a pot.
Sweeten and flavor the custard to taste, then heat until boiling.
Bake and fill
Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto baking tins and bake for 15 minutes at 400°F (200°C).
Open the sides of the baked cakes and fill them with custard.
For a nice finish, brush the tops with egg white before baking.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 structure of the dough as its starch thickens and sets with heat.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness to the cakes and custard.
- Rich cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving the cakes and custard a tender, creamy texture.
The step that matters
Cool the dough before adding the eggs. If the flour-and-cream mixture is still hot when the beaten eggs go in, the eggs can begin to cook and scramble, so the dough will not become smooth and well bound. Letting it cool first lets the eggs blend in evenly.
“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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