Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Cream Cakes

A chocolate custard cake filled with chocolate cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Chocolate Cream Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate cream

  1. Dissolve the chocolate in 3 tablespoons of water over boiling water.

  2. Gradually add ½ pint of milk, 1 beaten egg, and 2 tablespoons of dissolved corn starch.

  3. Cook the mixture over boiling water until thickened like custard.

  4. Stir in 2 tablespoons of fine sugar and flavor with vanilla.

Bake the cakes

  1. Form the cake batter into little, long shapes on a baking sheet.

  2. Bake until golden, then let cool.

Fill and finish

  1. Open each cake on one side.

  2. Fill with the chocolate cream.

  3. Optionally, frost each cake or dust with powdered sugar.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  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

Chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavor and deep color of the cream.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that becomes the creamy filling.
Egg
Helps thicken the cream as it cooks and adds richness.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture so it holds its shape as a filling.
Fine sugar
Sweetens the chocolate cream and balances its bitterness.

The step that matters

Cook the cream gently until it thickens. Egg and corn starch thicken the mixture as it heats, but high or uneven heat can curdle the egg or leave lumps. Gentle heat over boiling water and steady stirring give a smooth custard.

“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 chocolate cream cake recipes

Filling 4 See all 29 →

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipes