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Dessert

Cream to Spread Between Layers

A cake with a cream filling spread between its layers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Cream to Spread Between Layers

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, mix ½ cup sugar and 2 tablespoons flour until combined.

  2. Stir this mixture into 1 cup of boiling milk until it thickens.

Make the cake batter

  1. In another bowl, cream together ¾ cup sugar and butter until fluffy.

  2. Add 1 egg or 2 egg whites and ⅔ cup milk, mixing well.

  3. Gradually add 1½ cups flour and 2 teaspoons baking powder, stirring until smooth.

Make the filling and bake

  1. For the filling or frosting, combine 2 cups brown sugar, 1 cup sweet cream, and butter.

  2. Boil this mixture until thick, then stir in ⅔ cup milk and 1 egg yolk if desired.

  3. Bake the cake in flat tins or as two 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 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

Flour
Provides structure as it sets around the egg and milk when the cake bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter bind and set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the cake batter rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and helps the creaming step trap air.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and deepens flavour in the filling or frosting.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the batter and the boiled filling become smooth and tender.

The step that matters

Boil the filling until thick. Sugar-rich mixtures can scorch or turn grainy if overheated, and they only thicken properly when cooked long enough to reach the right concentration. Stir steadily and judge by thickness, not time alone.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, milk, butter, egg, cream):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, milk, butter, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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