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Dessert

Boston Cream Cakes

A cake made with butter, hot water, flour, eggs, baking soda, and salt, filled with a custard of eggs, milk, sugar, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Boston Cream Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the choux dough

  1. In a large saucepan, combine the butter and hot water. Heat until boiling.

  2. Add the sifted flour all at once, and mix well with a vegetable masher until smooth.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Then, add the beaten egg yolks, followed by the beaten egg whites, baking soda, and salt.

  4. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto greased baking sheets, spacing them about two inches apart.

Bake and cool

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes until golden.

  2. Once cooled, carefully cut open the sides of the cakes with a knife or scissors.

Make the custard and fill

  1. For the custard, heat ⅔ pint of milk in a double boiler with ⅓ pint of milk.

  2. In a bowl, mix the sugar, flour (or corn-starch), and beaten eggs.

  3. When the milk is nearly boiling, pour in the egg mixture and stir briskly for 3 minutes until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat, add butter, and flavor with vanilla or lemon extract.

  5. Fill the cooled cakes with the custard.

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. Corn + milktop 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

Eggs
Add structure and richness, setting the custard and helping the cakes rise and hold their shape.
Flour
Forms the structure of the dough and thickens the custard.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving tenderness and flavor to the cakes and custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds to its smooth, tender texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing creaminess as it thickens.
Corn-starch
Thickens the custard so it sets smooth and holds its shape when filled.

The step that matters

Stir the custard while it thickens. Constant stirring over heat keeps the egg proteins and starch from clumping or scorching on the bottom, giving a smooth, evenly thickened 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.

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