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Dessert

Caramel Cake

A layered cake with caramel sauce and chocolate frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 cake batter

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

  2. Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and baking soda (or cream of tartar).

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth.

  6. Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.

  7. Pour the batter into greased jelly tins and bake until golden.

Make the caramel

  1. For the caramel, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add 1 pint of brown sugar and ½ cup of milk or water, stirring until combined.

  3. Add ½ cake of chocolate.

  4. Boil for 20 minutes.

Assemble and frost

  1. Pour the warm caramel over the baked cake layers, stacking them as you go.

  2. For the frosting, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gradually add 1 ½ cups of sugar, continuing to beat until glossy.

  4. Mix in 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

  5. Fold in 3 teaspoons of grated chocolate.

  6. Spread the frosting over the top of the cake.

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. 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 and richness to the crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the cake and the caramel.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and keep moisture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that gives the frosting its light, stable structure.

The step that matters

Boil the caramel for 20 minutes. Sugar syrup that is boiled too briefly stays soft, while overcooking darkens and hardens it. Timing and stirring control how thick and smooth the caramel sets.

“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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