Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix sugar, beaten eggs, baking powder, and enough flour to make a stiff batter. Flavor the batter with vanilla extract.
Divide the batter into 3 layers and bake until golden.
Make the filling
For the filling, boil 2 cups of sugar with 1 cup of milk and butter until it becomes waxy but not too hard.
Flavor the filling with vanilla extract, stir until cool, and spread between the cake layers.
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.
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Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 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
- Eggs
- Provide structure and richness to the batter as they set in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the layers rise.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the layers brown; in the filling it cooks into a thick caramel.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and body to the filling as it cooks with the sugar.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the filling, giving it a smoother texture.
The step that matters
Boiling the filling until waxy but not too hard. Sugar syrup goes from soft to brittle over a narrow range of temperature. Stop too early and the filling stays runny; cook too long and it sets hard and grainy once cooled.
Swap the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, flour, milk, butter):
- Vanillathe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits less well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour, milk, butter. 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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