Skip to main content
Dessert

Velvet Cream

A chilled gelatin-based dessert made with cream, sugar, vanilla, and optional chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Velvet Cream

Why it works: Vanilla and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Velvet Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water until soft.

  2. Chill the cream on ice and whip until you have 3 pints of froth.

Make the mixture

  1. Boil any remaining cream or use 1 cup of milk with the sugar.

  2. Add the soaked gelatine to the boiling mixture and stir until dissolved.

  3. Strain into a granite pan, add vanilla and melted chocolate if desired.

  4. Cool the mixture, stirring occasionally until it thickens.

Set and serve

  1. Gently fold in the whipped cream when nearly stiff.

  2. Pour into an oiled mould and refrigerate until set.

  3. For variety, line the mould with sliced red bananas.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture into a soft, sliceable body as it cools.
Cream
Whipped, it adds air and richness for a light, creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the cream.
Vanilla
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the mixture.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped cream gently when nearly stiff. Whipped cream holds air that gives the set dessert its light texture. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, and a mixture that is too cold or too set will not blend 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.

More velvet cream recipes

Strawberry 3 See all 115 →

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes