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Dessert

Caramel Cake

A layered cake with caramel filling and almond icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. 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. In a large bowl, mix the sugar, butter, milk, flour, eggs, baking soda, and cream of tartar until well combined.

  3. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine the burned sugar, milk, butter, browned flour, and cold water in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture for 5 minutes, then add the ground almonds.

  3. Continue boiling until the mixture thickens to a custard-like consistency.

  4. Add a pinch of baking soda, stir well, and remove from heat.

  5. Once cooled, spread the filling between the layers of cake.

Finish

  1. Ice the cake with almond icing.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and keep moisture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to help it rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidic ingredient that works with baking soda to lighten the crumb.

The step that matters

Thickening the filling. The filling must be boiled until it thickens to a custard-like consistency before cooling. Under-cooked filling stays runny and soaks into the layers, while over-cooked filling turns stiff and sugary once cool.

“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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