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Dessert

Chocolate Caramel Cake

A chocolate cake with a caramel filling and chocolate icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate 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

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

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

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. Gradually add the sifted flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.

  5. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  6. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until golden.

Make the filling and assemble

  1. For the filling, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gradually add the confectioners' sugar.

  2. Flavor the filling with vanilla and spread between the cake layers.

  3. Allow the cake to cool completely.

  4. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and spread it thinly over the icing.

  5. If using coconut, add it before the icing hardens.

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 + coconuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded into the batter for lift, and beaten to stiff peaks to form the filling.
Sifted flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes airy.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the batter and, creamed with butter, helps create a light texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth batter that bakes tender.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air that gives the cake its rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the batter and yields a denser cake.

Swap the coconut

The recipe marks coconut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, flour, egg, vanilla, chocolate):

  1. Coconutthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

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