Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Cream Cake

A chocolate cake with a sweet chocolate filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Cream 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.

Make the batter

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

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

  3. Add the sweet milk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla; mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, melt the chocolate with ½ cup sweet milk and ½ cup white sugar over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Let cool.

  5. Sift the flour and add it alternately with the chocolate mixture to the batter, mixing well after each addition.

  6. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  7. Pour the batter into three or four greased cake pans.

  8. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, then let cool in the pans.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, boil 2 cups granulated sugar and 10 tablespoons milk until it runs from the spoon.

  2. Remove from heat, add butter, and stir until cool, then add vanilla.

  3. If the filling is too stiff, add a little water to thin it out.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 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 holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavour.
Baking soda
Reacts to lift the batter so the cake rises in the oven.
Chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavour, colour and a deeper richness.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and helps the batter stay soft after baking.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling to the right point. Boiling the sugar and milk until it runs from the spoon sets the filling's texture. Undercooked filling stays runny, while overcooked filling turns stiff or grainy as the sugar crystallises.

“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.

More chocolate cream cake recipes

Filling 4 See all 29 →

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes