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Dessert

Caramel Cake

A sweet baked cake with caramel filling made from brown sugar, milk, molasses, butter, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cake

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl.

  2. Add the sweet milk and mix well.

  3. Sift in the flour and baking powder, mixing until combined.

  4. Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  5. Pour the batter into jelly cake tins and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine brown sugar, milk, molasses, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the grated chocolate and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat, add a pinch of baking soda, and let cool.

  4. Once cool, flavor the filling with vanilla and spread between the cake layers.

  5. Optionally, cover the top and sides of the cake with the filling.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 and add richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Egg whites
Stiffly beaten whites trap air, giving the cake lift and a light structure.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture and a deep, caramel-like sweetness to the filling.
Grated chocolate
Melts into the filling, adding bitterness, richness and body.

The step that matters

Boiling the filling while stirring. Stirring constantly keeps the sugars and chocolate from scorching on the bottom of the saucepan, and the boil thickens the filling so it can be spread between the layers.

“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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