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 ↓
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 cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the flour, sugar, baking powder, and water until smooth.
Pour the batter into jelly cake pans and bake until golden.
Make the cream filling
For the cream filling, heat the milk in a saucepan.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, cornstarch, and sugar together.
Slowly add the hot milk to the egg mixture, stirring constantly.
Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook until thickened, then let it cool.
Assemble
Flavor the cream filling as desired and spread between the cakes.
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.
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Bind the batter and add structure and moisture to the cake, and thicken the cream filling.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the cake tender and the filling smooth.
- Milk
- Forms the body of the cream filling, adding moisture and richness.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the cream filling as it heats, giving it a spreadable set.
The step that matters
Adding the hot milk to the egg mixture. Pour the hot milk in slowly while stirring constantly so the egg does not scramble and the cornstarch disperses evenly. Cornstarch thickens only when heated, so the filling must be cooked until it thickens fully.
“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.
More cream cake recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.