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Dessert

Cream Cake

A cake made with powdered sugar, butter, milk, flour, eggs, baking powder, and a corn starch‑based filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

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 the batter

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

  2. Cream together the powdered sugar and butter.

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, eggs, and baking powder.

  5. Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix until smooth.

  6. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until golden.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, heat ½ pint of milk to boiling.

  2. In a small bowl, mix corn starch with a little cold milk, then stir into the boiling milk.

  3. Take out a small amount of the hot mixture and mix it with the beaten egg and sugar.

  4. Return the egg mixture to the pot and boil, stirring constantly until thick.

  5. Let the filling cool before adding the vanilla.

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

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

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and add tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Eggs
Add structure and richness to the batter as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Corn starch
Thickens the filling as its starch swells in hot milk.
Egg
Thickens the filling when gently cooked, adding richness to the custard.

The step that matters

Return the egg mixture to the pot and boil, stirring constantly until thick. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, and the starch needs to reach a boil to fully thicken. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly and prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pot.

“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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