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Dessert

Chocolate Caramel Cake

A chocolate cake with a caramel filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Chocolate Caramel Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate batter

  1. Combine grated chocolate, 1 cup sugar, and ½ cup sweet milk in a saucepan and cook until thick, then let cool.

  2. Cream together ½ cup butter and remaining 1 cup sugar in a mixing bowl.

  3. Add 2 eggs and 1 cup milk, mixing well, then incorporate the cooled chocolate mixture.

  4. Add 2½ cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 teaspoon vanilla, and mix until smooth.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans.

  2. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the filling and assemble

  1. Combine 1½ cups sugar and ½ cup sweet milk in a saucepan for the filling.

  2. Boil for five minutes.

  3. Beat until thick.

  4. Spread the filling between the layers of the cooled 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. 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

Grated chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavor and, cooked with sugar and milk, a thick, rich body.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and a rich mouthfeel.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter so the cake rises.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until thick. Boiling sugar and milk concentrates the sugar and thickens the mixture. Boiling too briefly leaves the filling runny, while cooking too long makes it stiff and grainy once it cools.

“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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