Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Layer Cake

A layered cake with plain and chocolate batter baked and iced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chocolate Layer 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 batter

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

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

  3. Add the egg yolks and sweet milk, mixing well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the wet mixture.

  5. Divide the batter in half.

  6. To one half, add the grated chocolate and mix well.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the plain batter into one greased cake pan and the chocolate batter into another.

  2. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. Once baked, layer the cakes alternately and spread with chocolate 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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Egg yolks add richness and moisture, and help bind the batter into a tender structure.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and helps create a tender crumb when creamed with sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, when creamed with butter, traps air that helps the cake rise.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, lifting the batter so the cakes rise.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and darkens the colour of one cake layer.

The step that matters

Creaming the butter and sugar. Beating softened butter with sugar until light and fluffy traps air in the fat, which helps the cake rise and gives a tender crumb. Cream until the mixture looks visibly lighter before adding the eggs and milk.

“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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipesChocolate Drop CookiesChocolate Drop Cookies50 recipes