Skip to main content
Dessert

Cake Cream Pudding

A layered cake with a sweet cream pudding filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Cake Cream Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Stir the baking powder into the flour.

  3. Beat the eggs until light.

  4. Add the water and sugar to the eggs.

  5. Gradually mix in the flour.

  6. Pour the batter into two buttered pie tins.

  7. Bake until done.

Make the cream

  1. Once baked, split each cake with a fork.

  2. For the cream, wet the cornstarch in a little milk.

  3. Heat the remaining milk with the butter until boiling.

  4. Stir in the cornstarch.

  5. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

  6. Add the sugar and salt.

  7. Remove from heat once dissolved.

  8. Let cool slightly.

  9. Add the vanilla extract.

Serve

  1. Serve the cream inside the split cakes, optionally with strawberries.

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
Beaten until light, they trap air and give the cake its structure as they set.
Flour
Forms the gluten network and sets with the eggs to give the cake its body.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, sliceable cream when heated.
Butter
Adds richness and a soft, smooth mouthfeel to the cooked cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and cream and adds tenderness to the crumb.

The step that matters

Stir the cornstarch into the boiling milk and cook it fully. Cornstarch only thickens once its starch granules swell in hot liquid. Stirring keeps it from lumping or scorching on the bottom, and cooking long enough ensures the cream sets smooth rather than thin or pasty.

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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes