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Dessert

Ice Cream Caramel Cake

A cake with caramel icing and layers.

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 ↓

Ice Cream 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 chocolate filling

  1. Combine grated chocolate, 1 cup sugar, ½ cup milk, and egg yolk in a saucepan.

  2. Boil until thickened.

  3. Let cool.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together 1 cup sugar and butter in a large bowl.

  2. Add 1 cup milk, flour, eggs, baking powder, and vanilla. Mix well.

  3. Stir in the cooled chocolate mixture until batter is cake dough consistency.

  4. Divide batter into three layers.

Bake and ice

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Boil 3 cups sugar and 1 cup water until thick like candy.

  3. Pour hot syrup over beaten egg whites.

  4. Beat for at least 15 minutes until fluffy.

  5. Spread icing thickly between the layers.

  6. Spread icing on top of the 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. Milk + buttertop 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. Butter + flourtop 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

Egg yolk
Thickens the chocolate mixture into a custard when boiled.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness to the cake crumb.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help give the cake its structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas that makes the layers rise.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam to give the icing its light, fluffy texture.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar syrup for the icing. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to make a stable, fluffy icing. Pouring it hot onto the whites while beating cooks the egg whites and lets them set into a glossy meringue-like icing.

“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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