Name: Hershey's German Chocolate Cake
Ingredients: 1/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa; 1/2 cup Boiling water; 1 cup Plus 3 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened; 2 1/4 cups Sugar; 1 tsp Vanilla extract; 4 Eggs; 2 cups All-purpose flour; 1 tsp Baking soda; 1/2 tsp Salt; 1 cup Buttermilk or sour milk (*); Pecan halves (optional); 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk); 3 Egg yolks, slightly beaten; 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine; 1 tsp Vanilla extract; 1 1/3 cups MOUNDS Sweetened Coconut Flakes; 1 cup Chopped pecans; COCONUT PECAN FROSTING (recipe follows)

Why it works: Cocoa and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 357 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

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.

Cocoa + vanillatop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together357 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Buttermilk + condensed milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Butter: Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
All-purpose flour: Forms the cake's structure once heated and set.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Buttermilk: Adds acidity that activates the baking soda and tenderises the crumb.
Cocoa: Provides chocolate flavour and deep colour to the cake.

The step that matters

Beat just enough to blend after adding the flour. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form; overbeating toughens the crumb. Mixing only until combined keeps the cake tender.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, vanilla, egg, flour, buttermilk, condensed milk):

Almondfits better
Hazelnutfits better
Pistachiofits better
Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, vanilla, egg, flour, buttermilk, condensed milk. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Coconut	1/2 cup shredded (40g)	283
Pecans	1 oz (28g / ~19 halves)	196
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Sour Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Pecan	1 half (4g)	20
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Hershey's German Chocolate Cake