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Baking

Caramel Cake

A layered cake made with caramelized sugar, chocolate, and butter, baked with a sweet filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the chocolate caramel

  1. In a double boiler, cook 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup sweet milk, and the yolk of 1 egg until thick.

  2. Stir in ½ cup grated chocolate and flavor with vanilla or lemon extract.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, cream together 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup granulated sugar, and ½ cup butter.

  2. Add ½ cup sweet milk, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 3 tablespoons cold water to the creamed mixture.

  3. Gradually mix in 2½ cups flour until well combined.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake in layers at 350°F (175°C).

  2. For the filling, cook 2 cups brown sugar and ¾ cup water with butter the size of an egg until creamy, then spread between 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 + 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add richness and structure to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the batter and filling.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture and molasses flavor, and helps the caramel filling set creamy.

The step that matters

Cooking the caramel filling until creamy. Sugar syrup can crystallize or turn grainy if it is undercooked or stirred unevenly. Cooking it to the right point gives a smooth, creamy texture when it cools between the layers.

“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

Chocolate 16Filling 11Potato 9Maple 4 See all 114 →

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