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Dessert

Cream Cake

A layered cake with a custard filling made from milk, sugar, cornstarch, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

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. In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Pour the mixture into jelly cake pans and bake until light brown.

Make the custard

  1. For the cream custard, heat the milk and sugar almost to a boil.

  2. Mix the cornstarch with a little milk until smooth, then add to the hot milk.

  3. Stir for five minutes without boiling, then remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  4. Stir in the egg and return to heat for a few minutes.

  5. Add vanilla and spread the custard thickly between the layers of cake.

Finish

  1. Ice the top layer of the cake.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cake sets.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once its starches set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard and adds moisture and creaminess.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot milk so the custard sets into a spreadable cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and custard and helps the cake brown.

The step that matters

Stir the custard without boiling. Cornstarch thickens only when heated and then needs to stay below a boil; boiling too hard or too long can break down its thickening power and leave the custard thin. Stirring keeps it smooth and prevents lumps or scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, milk, butter):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, milk, butter. 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.

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