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Dessert

Chocolate Cake, with Caramel Filling

Chocolate cake with caramel filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Cake, with Caramel Filling

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 batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter-lard mixture.

  3. Add cold water, flour, eggs, and baking soda; mix well.

  4. Dissolve the chocolate in the milk over low heat, then stir in corn starch.

  5. Add the chocolate mixture to the cake batter and mix thoroughly.

  6. Flavor with vanilla extract and pour into two cake pans.

Bake and make the caramel filling

  1. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the caramel filling, combine sugar and milk in a saucepan.

  3. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes without stirring.

  4. Remove from heat and stir as it thickens; flavor as desired.

Assemble

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

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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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 as they set in the oven.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake crumb as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter's acidity to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
Butter and lard mixture
Adds fat and tenderness, and creaming with sugar traps air for lift.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps brown it; also builds the caramel filling.
Baker's chocolate
Provides chocolate flavor and color to the batter.

The step that matters

Simmering the caramel without stirring. Stirring sugar syrup while it cooks can make it crystallize and turn grainy. Simmering it undisturbed lets the sugar caramelize and thicken smoothly, so keep the spoon out until it is off the heat.

“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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