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Dessert

French Chocolate Cake

A French chocolate cake layered with custard, made from egg whites, sugar, butter, milk, flour, baking powder, chocolate, and custard ingredients.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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French Chocolate Cake

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 ↓

French 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. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff.

  3. In another bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  4. Add the beaten yolks and mix well.

  5. Stir in the milk, then add the flour and baking powder.

  6. Fold in the stiff egg whites gently.

Make the chocolate layer

  1. For the chocolate layer, repeat the process using the yolks and adding grated chocolate.

Bake and make the custard

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

  2. For the custard, combine the eggs, milk, and sugar in a saucepan.

  3. Add flour or cornstarch and cook over low heat until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

  5. Once the cakes are cool, spread custard between the layers and 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

Egg whites
Beaten until stiff and folded in, they lighten the batter and help the cake rise.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the cake structure as the batter sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and richness to the second layer.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter and forms the base of the custard.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiff egg whites. Gentle folding keeps the air beaten into the whites, which gives the cake its lift. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam and produces a denser cake.

“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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