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Dessert

Cream Cake

A layered cake with butter, sugar, eggs, milk, flour, and a creamy filling made from milk, cornstarch, egg, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Cream Cake

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.

Make the cake

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

  2. Cream together the powdered sugar and butter.

  3. Add the eggs and milk, mixing well.

  4. Sift together the baking soda, cream of tartar, and flour.

  5. Gradually add the sifted dry ingredients to the mixture.

  6. Bake in layers like a jelly cake until golden brown.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, heat ½ pint of milk to boiling.

  2. Mix the cornstarch with a little cold milk.

  3. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the boiling milk.

  4. Beat the egg and sugar together.

  5. Gradually mix in a portion of the hot milk mixture.

  6. Return this mixture to the pot and cook, stirring constantly, until thick.

  7. Once cool, add vanilla and spread between the cake layers.

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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the cake its tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Provide structure and richness, setting the batter as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to lift the batter as it bakes.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk so the filling sets to a spreadable custard.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps create a fine, even crumb when creamed with butter.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until thick. The cornstarch must be stirred constantly over heat until it boils and thickens; otherwise it can scorch on the bottom or stay runny, and the egg can curdle if overheated.

“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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