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Dessert

Caramel Cake

A baked cake with a caramel topping made from brown sugar, chocolate, butter, milk, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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

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

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

  3. Add the milk, flour, corn starch, egg whites, and baking powder. Mix until smooth.

  4. Pour the batter into a long dripping pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the caramel

  1. For the caramel, combine brown sugar, chocolate, butter, milk, and vanilla in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens enough to spread.

Assemble and finish

  1. Spread the caramel over the entire cake once it has cooled.

  2. Cut the cake in half crosswise and stack the halves.

  3. Return the cake to the oven briefly to dry the top.

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

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

  5. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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
Provide structure and lift, setting the cake as they cook.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake batter as it sets in the oven.
Corn starch
Softens the crumb, making the cake more tender than flour alone.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become airy.
Chocolate
Gives the caramel its rich flavor and body as it thickens with the sugar and milk.

The step that matters

Cooking the caramel until it thickens. Heat must be controlled so the sugar and milk thicken into a spreadable mixture without scorching or becoming grainy. Undercooked caramel stays runny, while overcooked caramel turns hard once cool.

“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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