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Dessert

Caramel Filling

A sweet caramel filling made from sugar, cream, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Caramel Filling

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Caramel Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine 1½ cups of white sugar and 1 cup of cream or milk.

  2. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

  3. In a separate pan, burn 1 teaspoon of white sugar until dark.

  4. Add 3 tablespoons of water to the burned sugar and stir.

  5. Pour the burned sugar mixture into the thickened milk and sugar.

Finish and use

  1. Once cooled, mix in ½ cup of butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

  2. Spread the caramel filling on the cake when it is cold.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

White sugar
Provides sweetness and, when burned, the deep caramel flavour and colour.
Cream or milk
Adds fat and milk solids that thicken the mixture and give a creamy, soft texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smooth, spreadable body.

The step that matters

Burning the sugar. Sugar must be taken past golden to a dark brown; if it is too pale the filling tastes flat, while going too far turns it bitter. Adding water to the hot sugar can splatter, so stir carefully.

“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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