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Dessert

Caramel Cake

A layered cake with caramel custard and chocolate frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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 bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and milk; mix into the egg mixture.

  5. Divide the batter into layers and bake until golden.

Make the custard

  1. For the custard, bring ⅔ pint of milk to a boil.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix 4 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon cornstarch.

  3. Stir this mixture into the hot milk, then add 1 beaten egg.

  4. Cook until thick, then flavor with vanilla and let cool.

  5. Spread the custard between the baked layers.

Make the frosting and finish

  1. For the frosting, combine ½ pint sugar, ⅓ cup milk, butter, and 1 ounce chocolate in a saucepan.

  2. Cook until thick, then frost the top and sides 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb as they set.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor in the cake and frosting.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the layers rise and turn light.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as its starch swells in hot liquid.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until thick. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the mixture reaches a boil and is stirred constantly, so stopping early leaves it runny. Adding the beaten egg to very hot milk without tempering can scramble it, so the custard should be stirred steadily while it cooks.

“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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