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Dessert

Custard or Cream Cake

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 or Cream Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk and add it to the mixture.

  3. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the mixture.

  4. Stir the cream of tartar into the sifted flour and quickly add it to the batter.

Bake the layers

  1. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) in layers like jelly cake.

Make the custard

  1. For the custard, heat the sweet milk in a double boiler until boiling.

  2. Mix the corn starch or flour with the sugar and stir into the boiling milk.

  3. Add the egg yolks and a little cold milk, stirring until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and add vanilla or lemon for flavor.

  5. Cool the custard before spreading it between the 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. 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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they trap air and lighten the cake's crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender texture to the cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidic ingredient that stabilises the whipped egg whites and helps the leavening react.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness and colour.
Corn starch or flour
Thickens the custard as it heats, giving it a smooth, spreadable body.

The step that matters

Cooling the custard before spreading. Warm custard stays runny and soaks into the layers or slides off. Cooling lets it set to a thick, spreadable filling that holds between the cake layers.

“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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