Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cream Cakes or Custard Rolls
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the choux paste
Bring ½ pint of water to a boil in an enamelled pan.
Add ⅔ cup of butter and 1¼ cups of flour, stirring briskly for a moment.
Remove from heat and let cool in a dish until completely molded.
Beat 5 large eggs thoroughly and stir them into the cooled mixture one spoonful at a time until smooth and lump‑free.
Bake and fill
Drop the mixture onto a greased tin in pear‑shaped forms.
Bake in a very hot oven at 400 °F (200 °C) for 25 minutes, keeping the oven door closed.
When done, the cakes will be hollow inside and a bright brown colour.
Cut open the cakes near the bottom and fill them with cold sweet custard flavored with essence.
Alternatively, use whipped cream sweetened with fine sugar.
Dust the filled cakes with castor sugar.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Eggs
- Bind the paste and provide steam-driven lift and a set, hollow structure when baked.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and richness to the paste.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides starch and gluten that give the paste structure to hold its shape while baking.
- Water
- Boils with the butter to form the base that gelatinizes the flour and makes the paste workable.
The step that matters
Keep the oven door closed while baking. Opening the door drops the oven temperature and releases steam before the walls set, so the cakes can collapse instead of puffing into hollow shells.
“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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