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Dessert

Chocolate Caramel Cake

A chocolate cake with caramel filling and chocolate frosting.

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 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. 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 a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the caramel

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

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

Make and spread the frosting

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

  2. Gradually add the sugar, vanilla, and grated chocolate, mixing until smooth.

  3. Spread the frosting on top of the cooled 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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness to the cake crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they give the frosting its light, airy body.
Brown sugar
Gives the caramel its deep sweetness and molasses flavour.

The step that matters

Boil the caramel until thick. Boiling dissolves the sugar and drives off water so the mixture thickens as it cools. Stop too early and it stays runny; go too long and it can set too hard to spread. Spread it while warm, before it sets.

“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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