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Dessert

Caramel Cake

A layered cake with caramel filling made from brown sugar, milk, molasses, butter, flour, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk, flour, eggs, and baking powder. Mix until well combined.

  4. Divide the batter into layers and bake until golden brown.

Make the caramel

  1. For the caramel filling, combine brown sugar, milk, molasses, butter, flour, and cold water in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture for 5 minutes, then add the grated chocolate.

  3. Continue boiling until the mixture reaches custard consistency.

  4. Stir in a pinch of baking soda and remove from heat.

  5. Once cooled, flavor with vanilla.

Assemble and dry

  1. Spread the caramel between the layers and on top of the cake.

  2. Set the cake in a sunny window to dry.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

Sugar
Dissolves into the creamed butter to sweeten the batter and help it turn light.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
Flour
Its proteins set during baking, giving the layers their structure.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the layers rise.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness to the caramel.

The step that matters

Cooking the caramel to custard consistency. Sugar and milk scorch easily on direct heat, so the mixture needs steady stirring. Overcooking makes it too stiff to spread, while undercooking leaves it too runny to hold between the layers.

“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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