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Dessert

Caramel Cake

A butter and sugar cake with lemon rind and mace, topped with caramel custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Caramel 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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the butter, sugar, lemon rinds, and mace until thick and smooth.

  2. Add the eggs three at a time, then mix in the milk and rose-water until smooth.

  3. Sift the baking powder with the flour and corn starch, then combine all ingredients and stir quickly until smooth.

Bake the cakes

  1. Pour the batter into round cake pans to a depth of half an inch and bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, mix 6 oz sugar, 2 eggs, ⅓ cup caramel, 3 egg yolks, 1 tablespoon corn starch, and 1 pint milk until smooth.

  2. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until it thickens to a custard.

Assemble and finish

  1. Once cooled, spread a layer of custard on a sheet of cake, add a second layer, and top with a third sheet.

  2. Dust the top with powdered sugar.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lemon + rosetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,174 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Mace + rosetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together498 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Adds fat that gives the cake a tender, rich crumb when creamed with sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps hold air when creamed, adding lightness and browning.
Eggs
Provide structure as they set, and richness through their yolks and whites.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter and sets the custard filling as it thickens.
Corn starch
Softens the crumb and thickens the custard filling when heated.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard in a double boiler. Egg proteins set at moderate heat and can curdle or scramble if overheated, so gentle, steady cooking in a double boiler keeps the custard smooth while it thickens.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, lemon, egg, milk, rose, flour. 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.

More caramel cake recipes

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