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Dessert

Chocolate Caramel Cake

A chocolate cake with a caramel filling made from boiled sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the cake

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

  2. Beat the egg yolks and whites separately until fluffy.

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

  4. Add the sweet cream and chocolate to the creamed mixture.

  5. Gradually mix in the flour and baking powder.

  6. Fold in the beaten egg whites and vanilla.

  7. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, boil the white sugar with a small amount of water until it ropes.

  2. Beat the whites of 3 eggs to stiff peaks.

  3. Slowly pour the hot sugar into the egg whites while stirring constantly until cool.

  4. Add the citric acid and mix well.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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
Whipped whites give the cake lift and an airy, light crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tender texture.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once mixed with the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the cake rise.
White sugar
Cooked to a rope stage to form the sweet, set caramel-style filling.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and richness to the batter.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot sugar into the egg whites. Hot syrup must be poured slowly while whisking constantly so it blends smoothly and cooks the whites without scrambling them or deflating the foam.

“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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