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Dessert

Cream Pie

A layered cake with a sweet custard filling, topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

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 the flour and baking powder together.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until smooth.

  4. Add the flour mixture to the yolk mixture.

  5. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites.

  6. Divide the batter into two layers and bake until golden.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg and gradually add the hot milk.

  3. Return the mixture to the saucepan, add the flour and sugar, and stir until thickened.

Assemble and serve

  1. Let the filling cool before spreading it 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
Provide structure and richness, and whipped whites add lift to the batter.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake and thickens the custard filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the cake a tender crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
Milk
Provides moisture and liquid for the custard filling.

The step that matters

Thickening the filling. Adding the hot milk gradually keeps the egg from scrambling. Stirring constantly as the mixture heats lets the flour starch swell and thicken evenly, and prevents lumps and scorching.

“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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