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Dessert

Tipsy Charlotte

A butter and sugar cake with almond filling flavored with sherry, served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Tipsy Charlotte

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cream together the butter and sugar.

  3. Add the milk and flour mixed with baking powder alternately.

  4. Fold in the egg whites and vanilla.

  5. Pour the batter into a square tin and bake for 15 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. Thicken 1 cup of milk with 1 beaten egg and 1 tablespoon of sugar over heat.

  2. Remove from the stove.

  3. Cool the filling.

  4. Stir in the chopped almonds.

  5. Flavor the filling with sherry.

Assemble and serve

  1. Layer half of the filling on one cake layer.

  2. Add the second cake layer on top of the filling.

  3. Add the remaining filling on top of the second layer.

  4. Serve each piece with a tablespoon of whipped cream flavored with vanilla.

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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Vanilla + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once mixed with the liquid and baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises in the oven.
Egg whites
Whipped air and protein set during baking, lightening the cake's structure.
Egg
Thickens the filling custard as it heats, giving it a set, spreadable body.
Almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavor to the creamy filling.

The step that matters

Thicken the filling over heat. The egg proteins set as the custard heats, but too much heat can scramble the egg. Stirring gently and removing it from the stove once thickened keeps the filling 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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