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Dessert

Savoy Charlotte

A layered sponge cake with custard and whipped cream, flavored with wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Savoy Charlotte

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.

Prepare the cake

  1. Lay slices of sponge cake in the bottom of a deep dish.

  2. Moisten the slices with wine.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs.

  2. Stir the beaten eggs into the milk with sugar.

  3. Pour the custard mixture into a pan.

  4. Place the pan in a water bath.

  5. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until thick.

  6. Set the custard aside to cool.

  7. Pour the cooled custard over the cake.

Finish with cream

  1. Flavor the cream with wine and white sugar.

  2. Whip the flavored cream to a froth.

  3. Carefully place the whipped cream on top of the custard.

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

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

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Wine + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (fenugreek, curry).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Sponge cake
Forms the base layer that soaks up wine and holds the custard.
Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving it thickness and structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding moisture and softness.
Cream
Whipped to a froth, it forms a light, airy topping over the custard.
Wine
Moistens the cake and adds a fruity aroma to the cake and cream.

The step that matters

Bake the custard in a water bath until thick. Eggs set over gentle, even heat. Too much heat can curdle or overcook the custard, making it grainy and watery instead of smooth and thick.

“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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