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Dessert

Cream Cake

A layered cake with a custard filling made from sweet milk, corn starch, and eggs.

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 cake

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

  2. Cream together the powdered sugar and butter.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in the milk and baking powder, then gradually add the flour until well combined.

  5. Divide the batter into four layers and bake until golden.

Make the custard

  1. For the filling, heat the sweet milk to boiling.

  2. Mix the corn starch with a little cold milk, then stir it into the boiling milk.

  3. Take out a small amount and mix it with the beaten egg and sugar, then return it to the pot.

  4. Boil the mixture, stirring constantly, until thickened.

  5. Let the custard cool, then stir in the vanilla.

Assemble

  1. Spread the custard between the cooled cake layers.

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
Creamed with sugar, it traps air that helps the cake rise and gives a tender crumb.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter as they set in the oven.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake layers as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the cake layers rise and become light.
Corn starch
Thickens the boiling milk into a smooth custard filling.
Sweet milk
Forms the base of the custard, providing moisture and creaminess.

The step that matters

Adding the hot custard mixture back to the egg and sugar. Eggs scramble if they meet very hot liquid too quickly. Tempering with a small amount of hot milk first gently warms the egg, so it blends in smoothly before returning to 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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