Skip to main content
Dessert

Cream Pie

A layered cake with a sweet milk and egg filling, topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Cream Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cake

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

  2. Sift together the flour and baking powder.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together.

  4. Add the sifted flour mixture to the batter.

  5. Fold in the whipped egg whites.

  6. Divide the batter into two layers.

  7. Bake until golden.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, scald the milk.

  2. Pour the scalded milk over the beaten egg.

  3. Return the mixture to the heat.

  4. Add the moist flour and sugar.

  5. Stir until thickened.

  6. Let the filling cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the cooled filling between the cake layers.

  2. Top with whipped cream before serving.

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Whipped whites give the batter lift, and yolks add richness and structure to the cake.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure and, in the filling, thickens the custard when cooked.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard filling, which thickens as it heats and sets.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and filling and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Magic baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.

The step that matters

Return the mixture to the heat. The custard must be stirred over heat until thickened. Starch in the flour and the egg proteins need to heat enough to thicken, but overheating can scramble the egg and leave lumps.

“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.

More cream pie recipes

Lemon 54Boston 44Sour 38Coconut 24Whipped 20Orange 18 See all 378 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes