Skip to main content
Dessert

Charlotte Polonaise

A layered sponge cake with a custard filling, topped with cherries and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Charlotte Polonaise

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the flour with cream of tartar and baking soda, and sift five times.

  3. Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar, mixing well.

  4. Add the flour and milk alternately, pouring the milk through a sieve.

  5. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  6. Divide the batter into six layers and bake each layer until golden.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, boil 1 pint of milk.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with sugar and flour, then add the hot milk.

  3. Return the mixture to the heat, add the butter, and stir until thickened.

  4. Flavor with vanilla and let cool.

  5. Divide the filling in half; mix one half with chopped citron and the other with chopped almonds.

Assemble and serve

  1. Layer the cake with the filling and top with crystallized cherries and walnuts if desired.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, 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

Egg whites
Beaten whites add air to the batter, giving the layers lightness and a tender rise.
All-purpose flour
Flour forms the cake's structure, setting as it bakes to hold the layers together.
Butter
Butter adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor in both the cake and the filling.
Sugar
Sugar sweetens the batter and filling and helps the layers brown as they bake.
Milk
Milk adds moisture to the batter and, heated with eggs and flour, thickens the filling.
Eggs
Eggs in the filling thicken with the hot milk, giving the custard its body.

The step that matters

Return the filling to the heat and stir until thickened. Egg proteins set when heated, but overheating can scramble them. Stirring over gentle heat keeps the custard smooth while it thickens.

Swap the walnut

The recipe marks walnut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, butter, milk, cream, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, butter, milk, cream, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesAlmond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipes