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Dessert

Chocolate Caramel Oake

A chocolate cake topped with caramel and frosted with a chocolate‑vanilla icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Chocolate Caramel Oake

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. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the eggs and milk, mixing well.

  4. Sift together the flour and baking powder, then add to the mixture.

  5. Pour the batter into jelly tins and bake until golden.

Make the caramel

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

  2. Boil for 20 minutes or until thick, then spread between the cakes while warm.

Make and spread the frosting

  1. For the frosting, beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Add vanilla, sugar, and grated chocolate, mixing until smooth.

  3. Spread the frosting on top of the cake.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavour in the cake and caramel.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the caramel and gives it a deep, molasses-like flavour.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks to give the frosting its light, airy structure.

The step that matters

Boil the caramel for 20 minutes. Caramel thickens as water evaporates and sugar concentrates. Boiling too briefly leaves it runny, while over-boiling can make it hard or grainy once cooled. Spread it while warm, as it sets quickly as it cools.

“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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