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Dessert

Double Chocolate Cake No. 1

A chocolate cake with butter, almonds, sugar, chocolate, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,733 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Double Chocolate Cake No. 1

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Cream the butter until smooth.

  3. Gradually add the sugar and egg yolks, mixing well.

  4. Melt the chocolate in the oven and add it to the mixture.

  5. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  6. Add the grated almonds with the skin on and mix gently.

  7. Spread the batter in a buttered pan to about ⅛ inch thick.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake for 30 minutes.

  2. Spread jam on one half.

  3. Cover with the other half.

  4. Cut into small squares.

  5. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

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. Almond + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites are beaten stiff and folded in to lighten the batter and give it structure as it bakes.
Butter
Creamed until smooth, it adds fat and richness and helps give the cake a tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the creamed butter stay smooth and airy.
Chocolate
Melted into the batter to add its flavour and a rich, dense texture.
Almonds
Grated almonds add body, nutty aroma and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when beaten stiff, and overmixing or stirring vigorously knocks that air out. Gentle folding keeps the batter light so it rises and bakes with an even texture.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, chocolate, egg):

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Hazelnutfits less well
  4. Peanutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, chocolate, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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