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Cream Filled Cakes

A small pear-shaped cake with a sweet cream filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Filled 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 choux paste

  1. Boil ½ pint of water in a small kettle.

  2. Add ⅔ cup of butter and 1½ cups of flour to the boiling water; stir briskly for a moment.

  3. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool completely.

  4. Beat 5 large eggs thoroughly, then stir them into the cooled mixture one spoonful at a time until smooth.

Bake the cakes

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a greased baking sheet to form small pear-shaped cakes.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes until hollow inside and golden brown.

Make the cream filling

  1. For the cream filling, heat 1 pint of milk in a double boiler.

  2. In a bowl, beat 2 eggs, ⅔ cup corn starch, 1 cup sugar, and ½ teaspoon salt together; add a little milk and mix well.

  3. Stir the mixture into the boiling milk until thick.

Fill and serve

  1. Cut open the cakes near the bottom and fill them with the cold 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 structure of the paste that holds the cakes together.
Eggs
Add structure and lift, and help the paste puff and set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the paste a tender texture.
Milk
Forms the base of the cream, adding richness and body when heated.
Corn starch
Thickens the cream filling as it heats with the milk.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream filling and balances its thickness.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture into the boiling milk until thick. Cornstarch needs to reach a boil in the milk to thicken fully. Stirring keeps it smooth and prevents lumps or scorching on the bottom of the pan.

“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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