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Dessert

Caramel Layer Cake

A layered cake with a caramel filling made from brown sugar, milk, molasses, butter, flour, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 Layer 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 large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and eggs, mixing well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.

  6. Divide the batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the caramel filling

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

  2. Boil for 5 minutes, then add grated chocolate and cook until thickened like custard.

  3. Stir in a pinch of baking soda and remove from heat.

  4. Once cooled, flavor with vanilla extract.

Assemble and dry

  1. Spread the caramel filling between the layers of cake and on top.

  2. Let the cake sit in a sunny window to dry.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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
Provides the structure that sets the cake crumb as the batter bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and hold moisture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to help it rise.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness to the caramel.

The step that matters

Cooking the caramel filling until thickened. The filling thickens as its starch and sugar cook and cool. Undercooked filling stays runny and soaks into the layers, while overcooking can make it stiff or grainy once cooled.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, cream, molasses):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Strawberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, cream, molasses. 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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