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Dessert

Cake Trifle

A layered dessert of cake, raspberry jam, custard, and pi cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cake Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble the base

  1. Cut the sponge or rice cake into slices.

  2. Layer one third of the cake slices at the bottom of a dish.

  3. Spread a layer of raspberry jam over the cake.

  4. Add another layer of cake, followed by more jam, and then another layer of cake.

Make the custard and finish

  1. Prepare thick custard by heating 1 pint of milk and whisking in 3 eggs until thickened.

  2. Pour the custard over the layered cake and jam.

  3. Top with a little pi cream.

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. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  2. Raspberry + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,014 recipes

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

  3. Rice + raspberrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together201 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Raspberry + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,332 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sponge cake or rice cake
Forms the soft base layers that soak up the jam and custard.
Raspberry jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour between the cake layers.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that sets when heated.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as they cook, giving it a set, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Thickening the custard. Eggs thicken when heated gently, but too much heat can scramble them. Whisking steadily while the custard heats keeps it smooth and thick rather than lumpy.

Swap the raspberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, egg, cream. 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.

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