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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake baked with butter, eggs, milk, flour, and grated chocolate, finished with boiled icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Cream together the sugar and butter.

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

  4. Stir in the milk.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the wet mixture.

Make the chocolate mixture

  1. In a saucepan, combine the grated chocolate, 5 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Cook until thin.

  2. Stir the chocolate mixture into the cake batter last.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake crumb as the batter bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter bind and rise.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavour.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Grated chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavour and deep colour.

The step that matters

Adding the flour mixture gradually. Adding dry ingredients in portions and mixing only until combined keeps the batter smooth. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the cake tough and dense.

“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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