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Dessert

Caramel Cake Filling

A caramel filling made from brown sugar, chocolate, milk, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Caramel Cake Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Mix the brown sugar, chocolate, milk, butter, and vanilla thoroughly.

  2. Cook the mixture over medium heat until it thickens enough to spread.

Assemble and dry

  1. Spread the filling on the cake.

  2. Place the cake in the oven to dry.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel flavor, and helps the filling thicken as it cooks.
Chocolate
Adds rich flavor and fat, giving the filling body and a smooth texture.
Milk
Provides liquid that dissolves the sugar and lets the mixture cook into a spreadable filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, soft texture in the finished filling.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the sweetness of the sugar and chocolate.

The step that matters

Cooking until it thickens enough to spread. Sugar and milk can scorch on the bottom of the pan over medium heat. The filling also firms up as it cools, so it should be cooked only until it is thick enough to spread, not until stiff.

“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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