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Dessert

Cream Cake

A sweet cake with a creamy filling and icing made from eggs, milk, butter, sugar, flour, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the eggs separately, reserving one white for icing.

  3. Combine the beaten eggs.

  4. In a bowl, mix the sugar with the butter until well combined.

  5. Gradually add the flour, then reserve 1 tablespoon of the dough for the filling.

  6. Stir in the baking powder and vanilla extract.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a round pan and bake for one day before filling.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, heat the milk, egg yolk, and reserved batter in a saucepan until thick.

  2. If the filling is not thick enough, add a little cornstarch.

  3. Once cooled, mix in the chopped almonds.

Assemble and ice

  1. Slice the cake into thin layers, filling each layer with the cream.

  2. Beat the reserved egg white until stiff.

  3. Gradually add the pulverized sugar and flavor to taste.

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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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
Provide structure and richness to the batter, and the whites whip into a stiff foam for icing.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Egg yolk
Thickens the filling as it heats, giving it a creamy, set texture.
Pulverized sugar
Sweetens the cake and, in the icing, dissolves into the stiff egg white for a smooth finish.

The step that matters

Thickening the filling. Egg yolk proteins set when heated, but if the custard is overheated it can curdle, and if underheated it stays runny. Heat gently and stir until it thickens, then cool before mixing in the almonds.

“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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