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Dessert

Mocha Torte

A layered coffee-flavored cake with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Mocha Torte

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. Cream together the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Add the coffee essence and mix well.

  3. Sift the flour with the baking powder.

  4. Fold the sifted flour mixture into the batter.

  5. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  6. Divide the batter into two layers.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.

Whip and assemble

  1. Whip the heavy cream.

  2. Sweeten the whipped cream to taste.

  3. Flavor the whipped cream with coffee essence.

  4. Spread the whipped cream between the layers.

  5. Spread the whipped cream on top.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Egg yolks
Add richness and colour, and help the batter bind and set when baked.
Egg whites
Trap air when beaten, giving the torte a light, airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks cream into a smooth, thick mixture.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch that sets during baking to give the layers their structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the layers rise in the oven.
Heavy cream
Whipped into a rich, stable topping and filling that adds moisture and fat.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.. Egg whites hold air that makes the layers light. Stirring vigorously or overmixing knocks out that air, so the torte bakes up dense and flat instead of airy.

“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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