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Dessert

Cream Cakes

A sweet baked dessert made from water, butter, sugar, flour, eggs, and cream, topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the choux dough

  1. Boil water, butter, and sugar together.

  2. Stir in flour and allow to boil for a little.

  3. Remove from heat and cool.

  4. Stir in beaten eggs and mix thoroughly.

Bake and fill

  1. Drop spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 to 25 minutes.

  3. Cut off the tops and fill with whipped cream sweetened with fine sugar and flavored with 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 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

Flour
Starch that gelatinises with the hot liquid and sets the dough so it holds its shape while baking.
Eggs
Add moisture and structure, and their proteins set as the dough bakes to give the cakes their hollow body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and tenderness to the dough.
Cream
Provides the rich, soft filling that contrasts with the crisp shell.

The step that matters

Stir in beaten eggs and mix thoroughly. The dough must be cool enough that the eggs do not scramble, and mixed fully so the batter is smooth and glossy. Properly incorporated egg gives the shells enough structure to puff and hold a hollow centre.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, egg, cream):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits less well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, 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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