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Dessert

Chocolate Cake I

A chocolate cake with butter, sugar, sour milk, eggs, flour, baking soda, baking powder, chocolate, and frosting of egg whites, confectioner's sugar, grated chocolate, vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 I

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. Cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the sour milk and dissolved baking soda, mixing well.

  4. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

  5. Gradually add the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.

  6. Dissolve the chocolate and add it to the batter.

  7. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the frosting

  1. For the frosting, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gradually add the confectioner's sugar and mix until smooth.

  3. Fold in the grated chocolate and vanilla to taste.

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

Eggs
Add structure and richness, binding the batter as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake crumb as it sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich texture when creamed with sugar.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to help the cake rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender, browned crumb.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.. Overbaking dries the cake, while underbaking leaves the centre wet and sunken. A toothpick test shows when the structure has set through.

“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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