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Dessert

Left-over Cake Dessert

A custard made from milk, butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla, cornstarch, and leftover cake pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Left-over Cake Dessert

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Wet the cornstarch with a little cold milk.

  3. Beat together the eggs and sugar in a bowl.

  4. Stir the egg-sugar mixture into the hot milk.

Assemble and serve

  1. Toast the pieces of leftover cake and place them in a dish.

  2. Pour the custard over 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. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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
Thicken the custard as they set, giving it body and a creamy structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and provides moisture and richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the eggs stay smooth when beaten.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk-based custard so it holds together rather than running off the cake.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer, softer mouthfeel in the custard.

The step that matters

Stir the egg-sugar mixture into the hot milk. If the eggs are added to very hot milk too quickly, they can scramble. Adding the mixture gradually while stirring, and keeping the heat gentle, lets the egg proteins thicken the custard smoothly.

“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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