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Dessert

Burnt Sugar Cake

A cake made with burnt sugar, flour, eggs, butter, and vanilla, topped with a burnt sugar icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Burnt Sugar 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 burnt sugar

  1. Heat 1 cup of sugar in an iron frying pan over high heat until it turns black.

  2. Carefully pour in 1 cup of water from the side of the pan.

Make the cake

  1. In a bowl, mix 1½ cups sugar, ½ cup butter, 3 beaten eggs, 1 cup water, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 tablespoons burnt sugar, 2 cups flour, and 2 teaspoons baking powder.

  2. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the icing

  1. For the icing, combine 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon burnt sugar, and enough milk to achieve the desired consistency.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure of the cake as the proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Burnt sugar
Gives the cake its characteristic bitter, caramel-like flavor and deep color.

The step that matters

Burning the sugar. Sugar must be taken past caramel to a deep black, or the burnt flavor and color will be weak. Heating it too fast can scorch it into harsh bitterness, so watch it closely and pour in the water carefully, since the hot mixture can splatter.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

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

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