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Burnt Sugar Cake

A cake made from butter, sugar, salt, water, eggs, flour, baking powder, and a burnt sugar frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Burnt Sugar Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream one-half cup butter and one and one-half cups sugar, then add one-half teaspoon salt.

  2. Add yolks of two eggs.

  3. Add one cup cold water.

  4. Add caramel made by burning one half cup sugar till smoking brown and adding one-half cup hot water.

  5. Add three cups flour sifted twice, then add six level teaspoons baking powder.

Bake and frost

  1. Bake in layers in hot oven with slight decreasing temperature for twenty minutes.

  2. Burn four tablespoons sugar and add to boiled frosting.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

684Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
108 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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 + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + teatop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together703 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Sugar + teatop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,204 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour (in the method)
Builds the cake's structure as its proteins and starch set during baking.
Butter
Its fat tenderises the crumb and carries flavour through the batter.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and help bind the batter into a smooth emulsion.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the layers rise and turn light.
Sugar
Burnt to caramel, it adds a bittersweet flavour and deep brown colour.

The step that matters

Burn the sugar till smoking brown. Sugar turns from caramel to bitter and acrid soon after smoking begins, so it must be watched closely. Adding hot water carefully helps it dissolve without spattering.

“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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