Name: Lenten Chocolate Cake
Ingredients: 3 / 4 cup. vegetable oil; 2 cups. sugar; 3.5 cups. flour; 2 cups. water (tap water temperature); 3 tablespoons vinegar; 6 tablespoons cocoa; 1 tsp salt; 2 vanilla; 2 teaspoons soda cooking; For the glaze:; 1 cup. caster sugar; 3 tablespoons cocoa; 1 tsp vegetable oil; 3 tablespoons water

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).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,241 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 together as it bakes.
Vegetable oil: Adds moisture and a tender crumb to the cake.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while keeping it moist.
Vinegar: Reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter and give it a lighter texture.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in the vinegar to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Cocoa: Gives the cake its chocolate flavour and dark colour.

The step that matters

Bake until a knife comes out clean. Baking soda and vinegar start lifting the batter as soon as they meet, so the batter should go into the mold promptly. Judging doneness by a clean knife test prevents an underbaked, sunken centre or a dry, overbaked cake.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, vinegar, vanilla):

Chestnutfits better
Almondfits better
Hazelnutfits better
Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, vinegar, vanilla. 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
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Lenten Chocolate Cake