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Dessert

French Cream Cake

A layered cake with a sweet cream filling made from milk, eggs, sugar, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

French Cream Cake

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 cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the eggs and mix in the sugar until well combined.

  3. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then add to the egg mixture.

  4. Stir in the cold water until smooth.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until golden.

Make the cream

  1. While the cake is baking, boil the sweet milk.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat one egg with the sugar and cornstarch.

  3. Once the milk is nearly boiling, stir in the egg mixture.

  4. Add a small piece of butter and flavor to taste.

Assemble

  1. When the cake is warm, split it and spread the cream between the 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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Beaten eggs provide structure and lift to the sponge-style batter as it bakes.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake once its starches set in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and turn light.
Sweet milk
Becomes the base of the cream, adding moisture and richness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cream when heated, giving it a smooth, set texture.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture into the nearly boiling milk. Adding the egg to very hot milk gradually, while stirring, keeps it from scrambling. Cornstarch then thickens the cream as it heats.

“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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