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Dessert

Pecan Caramel Cake

A baked cake with pecan pieces and a caramel filling, topped with whole pecan meats.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Pecan 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 the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the sweet milk, flour, baking powder, and vanilla; mix well.

  4. Fold in the egg whites and chopped pecans last.

  5. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until golden.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine 2 cups sugar and ½ cup milk in a saucepan; boil until it threads.

  2. In another pan, melt 1 cup white sugar until it resembles molasses.

  3. Slowly pour the melted sugar into the milk and sugar mixture; boil.

  4. Add 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon vanilla, and 1 cup chopped pecans; stir until thick.

Assemble and decorate

  1. Spread the filling between the layers and on the outside of the cake.

  2. Decorate the top with whole pecan meats.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Vanilla + pecanstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,691 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Butter + pecanstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,416 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb and flavor.
Eggs whites
Provide structure and lift, helping the cake hold its shape and become airy.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, when cooked, forms the caramel-like filling.
Pecans
Add crunch and a toasted, nutty flavor to the batter and filling.

The step that matters

Boiling the filling to the thread stage. Sugar syrup must reach the correct concentration to set properly. Undercooked filling stays runny, while overcooked filling turns hard and grainy as it cools.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, flour, vanilla, egg, meat):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pecansthe original
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, flour, vanilla, egg, meat. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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