Skip to main content
Dessert

Charlotte Polonaise Cake

A layered cake with a batter of powdered sugar, butter, eggs, cream, flour, and baking powder, topped with custard, chocolate, almonds, citron, and macaroons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Charlotte Polonaise 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 batter

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

  2. Cream together the powdered sugar and butter.

  3. Add the egg yolks and beat well.

  4. Stir in the cream and mix thoroughly.

  5. Combine flour and baking powder.

  6. Add the flour and baking powder to the mixture.

  7. Whip egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  8. Fold the whipped egg whites into the batter.

  9. Pour batter into a greased cake pan.

  10. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Make the custard

  1. Whip the 6 eggs until very light.

  2. Stir flour into the hot cream.

  3. Carefully add the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Keep the mixture at a slow boil, stirring constantly for 5 minutes.

  5. Divide the custard into three portions.

Flavour and cool the portions

  1. In one portion, mix in the grated chocolate and crushed macaroons.

  2. Boil that portion for 5 minutes.

  3. In another portion, mix the pounded almonds, chopped citron, and sugar.

  4. Heat that portion to a slow boil.

  5. Set all portions aside to cool before assembling.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure and richness, with whipped whites lifting the batter and yolks thickening the custard.
Flour
Builds the cake's structure and thickens the hot cream into custard.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb to the cake.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and body to one custard portion.
Grated chocolate
Adds deep flavour and colour to one custard portion.

The step that matters

Keep the custard at a slow boil while stirring. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, while flour needs to reach a boil to cook and thicken properly. Constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the base of the pan.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, cream, flour, chocolate, almond. 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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipesChocolate Drop CookiesChocolate Drop Cookies50 recipes