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Dessert

Caramel Cake

A layered cake with caramel sauce and chocolate frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 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. Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk, flour, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Mix until smooth.

  4. Pour the batter into greased jelly tins and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the caramel

  1. For the caramel, melt the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Add the milk or water and chocolate, then boil for 20 minutes or until thick.

  3. Pour the caramel over the warm cakes, stacking the layers.

Make the frosting

  1. For the frosting, beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add sugar, vanilla, and grated chocolate.

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

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

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

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

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
Add structure to the batter and help bind the cake crumb.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, tenderising the crumb and flavouring the caramel.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to lighten the cake as it bakes.
Brown sugar
Gives the caramel its deep flavour and sweetness, and helps it thicken.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.

The step that matters

Boiling the caramel. The caramel must boil long enough to thicken as sugar concentrates and cools. Too short a boil leaves it runny, while over-boiling can make it hard or grainy once 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.

More caramel cake recipes

Chocolate 16Filling 11Potato 9Maple 4 See all 114 →

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