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Dessert

Caramel Cake, Spanish

A Spanish caramel cake made with sugar, butter, eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, vanilla, brown sugar, cream, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Caramel Cake, Spanish

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 cake layers

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and vanilla. Mix well.

  4. Divide the batter into three layers and bake until golden.

Make the icing and finish

  1. For the icing, boil the brown sugar, cream, and butter for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat and beat in the egg white until frothy, then add vanilla.

  3. Spread the icing on the cooled layers and sprinkle with chopped walnuts.

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. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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 they set during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness and helps the sugar cream into a smooth base.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps brown the crumb as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake layers as the starch sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise and become light.
Brown sugar
Gives the icing a caramel flavour and helps it thicken as it boils.

The step that matters

Boiling the icing for 15 minutes. Sugar boiled at the right heat thickens into a spreadable caramel. Too short a boil leaves the icing runny, while too long can make it grainy or hard. Watch the timing closely.

“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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