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Dessert

Custard or Cream Cake

Cake with batter of sugar, butter, milk, baking soda, flour, and egg whites, topped with custard of milk, corn starch, sugar, yolks, 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 ↓

Custard or Cream Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cake 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 a stiff froth and fold them into the mixture.

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

Make the custard

  1. For the custard, heat the sweet milk in a dish set in boiling water.

  2. When boiling, stir in the corn starch or flour mixed with sugar and add the egg yolks and a little cold milk.

  3. Stir this mixture into the boiling milk and cook until thickened.

  4. Set aside to cool, then add vanilla or lemon for flavor.

Bake

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

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
Whipped to a stiff froth, they trap air and give the cake lift and a light crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acid that stabilizes the whipped egg whites and reacts with the baking soda to aid rising.
Butter
Creamed with the sugar to add fat, tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Sifted flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness to its texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until thickened. Starch thickens only when it reaches a boil, and the egg yolks can curdle if overheated. Stirring constantly keeps the custard smooth while it thickens.

“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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