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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with a chocolate filling made from grated chocolate, cake chocolate, sugar, milk, butter, and vanilla.

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

Chocolate 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the cake

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

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

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

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the milk.

  6. Fold in the grated chocolate.

  7. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the filling and finish

  1. For the filling, melt the ½ cake chocolate with the milk and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the sugar and a little flour to thicken, then add vanilla to taste.

  3. Once the cake is cooled, spread the filling between layers or 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  5. Walnut + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,730 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Eggs
Add structure and richness, binding the batter as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness, and creams with sugar to trap air for a lighter crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming aerates the batter.
All-purpose flour
Forms the cake's main structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and fat, deepening the cake's taste and moistness.

The step that matters

Adding the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour gradually and alternating with milk keeps the batter smooth. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cake tough.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, butter, milk, chocolate, vanilla. 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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