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Dessert

Boston Cream Cakes

Boston Cream Cakes are baked cakes filled with custard made from eggs, sugar, flour or corn starch, milk, butter, and flavored with vanilla or lemon.

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 ↓

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. Combine butter and hot water in a large saucepan and heat until boiling.

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

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  4. Add beaten egg yolks, followed by beaten egg whites.

  5. Stir in baking soda and salt.

Bake and open the cakes

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

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

  3. Once cooled, carefully open the cakes on the side with a knife or scissors.

Make and add the filling

  1. For the filling, combine eggs, sugar, and flour or corn-starch in a bowl.

  2. Heat milk in a double boiler. Once hot, pour in the egg mixture and stir for 3 minutes until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat, add butter, and flavor with vanilla or lemon. Let cool before filling the cakes.

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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps create a tender interior in the cakes.
Eggs
Provide structure as the dough sets, and their proteins help the cakes puff and hold their shape.
Sifted flour
Forms the starch and protein framework that gives the cakes their body.
Corn-starch
Thickens the filling so it sets smoothly when cooled.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and adds body to the custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the filling and adds richness and creaminess.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until thickened. Starch needs to reach a boil or near-boil to swell and thicken, and eggs can curdle if overheated. Stirring steadily keeps the custard smooth.

“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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