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Dessert

Caramel Cake

A layered cake with a caramel filling made from light brown sugar, cream, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 batter

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

  2. Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the sweet milk and egg yolks, mixing well.

  4. Sift together the flour and baking powder.

  5. Gradually add the sifted flour mixture to the batter.

  6. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  7. Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.

Bake the layers

  1. Pour the batter into greased cake pans.

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

Make and fill the caramel filling

  1. Boil the light brown sugar, cream, and butter in a saucepan over moderate heat for 20 minutes.

  2. Allow the filling to cool.

  3. Flavor the cooled filling with vanilla.

  4. Spread the flavored filling between the cake layers.

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. Milk + buttertop 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

Eggs
Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks lighten the batter and give the cake its airy structure.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay tender.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the cake and fat to the caramel filling.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
Light brown sugar
Cooked with cream and butter, it forms the caramel flavour and thick filling.

The step that matters

Boil the filling for the full 20 minutes. Boiling the sugar, cream and butter lets water evaporate and the sugar caramelise and thicken. Stopping early leaves a thin, runny filling that will not hold between the layers once cooled.

“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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