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Dessert

Custard or Cream Cake

A layered cake made with a sweet batter and a thickened custard filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Custard or Cream Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cake batter

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk and add it to the mixture.

  3. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and fold them into the mixture.

  4. Stir the cream of tartar into the sifted flour and quickly add it to the batter.

Bake and make the custard

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven in layers like jelly cake.

  2. For the custard, heat 2 cups of sweet milk in a dish set in boiling water.

  3. When the milk boils, stir in the cornstarch or flour mixed with ½ cup sugar.

  4. Add the egg yolks and a little cold milk, stirring into the boiling milk.

  5. Cook until thickened, then set aside to cool and add flavoring.

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

Eggs whites
Whipped to a stiff froth, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds fat that gives the cake tenderness and a rich texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps trap air for a fine crumb.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets the cake's crumb once baked.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter and stabilizes the whipped egg whites, helping them hold their foam.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness and smoothness.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until thickened. Egg yolks and starch thicken the custard only when it is heated enough, but overheating can curdle the yolks. Stirring steadily over the water bath keeps it smooth.

“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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