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Dessert

Golden Cream Cake

A layered cake made with sugar, butter, milk, eggs, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and a sweet cream topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Golden Cream 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 and bake the cake

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Add the sweet milk and beaten egg whites.

  3. Sift in the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar, then mix well.

  4. Bake in three deep jelly tins at 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

  1. Beat the egg yolks with sugar and sweet cream.

  2. Flavor with vanilla.

  3. Spread the mixture on the cakes.

Make the alternative filling

  1. For an alternative, mix egg yolks with corn starch, sweet milk, and butter.

  2. Sweeten and flavor to taste.

  3. Cook in a double boiler until thick.

  4. Let cool.

  5. Spread on the cakes.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Vanilla + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Egg whites
Trap air when beaten, giving the cake lightness and body.
Baking soda
Reacts with cream of tartar to release gas that makes the cake rise.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the filling set as it thickens with heat.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Corn starch
Thickens the alternative filling as its starch swells when heated.

The step that matters

Cook the filling in a double boiler until thick. Corn starch thickens only when heated gently and stirred, and cooking it too fast can scorch the filling or leave lumps. Gentle, steady heat lets the starch swell evenly and set 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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