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Dessert

Caramel Cake

A layered cake with caramel sauce and chocolate frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cake

  1. Combine one and a half cups sugar, three-fourths cup butter, one-half cup milk, two and a fourth cups flour, three eggs, one and a half heaping teaspoons baking powder, a small teaspoon soda, and two teaspoons cream tartar; mix until smooth.

  2. Bake the batter in jelly tins.

Make the caramel

  1. Make caramel by melting butter the size of an egg, adding one pint brown sugar, one-half cup milk or water, and half a cake chocolate; boil for twenty minutes or until thick.

  2. Pour the warm caramel over the cakes, layering them one upon the other.

Frost and finish

  1. For the frosting, whisk the whites of three eggs, add one and one-half cups sugar, a teaspoon vanilla, and three heaping teaspoons grated chocolate; spread over the top of the cake.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

584Calories
16 gProtein
39 gFat
43 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Cakenot 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 Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio). 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 + milktop 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. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the cake crumb and enriches the caramel.
Baking powder
Releases gas to lift the batter so the cakes rise.
Brown sugar
Gives the caramel its deep sweetness and molasses flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter and helps the caramel become smooth and thick.

The step that matters

Boil the caramel until thick. Boiling for the full time drives off water and concentrates the sugar, so the caramel sets thick enough to layer. Undercooked caramel stays runny and soaks into the cakes, while overcooked caramel turns hard and bitter.

“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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