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Dessert

Custard Cake

A baked cake with a custard filling made from milk, eggs, and sugar.

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 ↓

Custard 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the cake

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

  2. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, sweet milk, melted butter, beaten eggs, cream of tartar, and baking soda until well combined.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the custard

  1. To make the custard, heat the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar.

  3. Once the milk is warm, slowly add it to the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

  4. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract once the custard is cool.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps tenderize its texture.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, helping the leavening react and stabilizing texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat.

The step that matters

Adding the warm milk to the egg yolks. Pouring hot milk into yolks too quickly can scramble them. Adding it slowly while stirring gradually raises their temperature so the custard thickens smoothly.

“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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