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 ↓
Delicious Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the choux-style base
Let the water and butter come to a boil.
Stir in the flour and let it cook a minute or two.
Take from the stove and break in the eggs, one at a time.
Stir till thoroughly mixed, then drop in pans.
Bake in quite a hot oven until the butter, which comes to the surface in bubbles, disappears.
Cool in the pans.
Make the filling and cake
Cook the filling like custard.
Flavor the filling with vanilla.
Cook the chocolate mixture until it thickens, stirring all the time, then mix with the cake.
Flavor the chocolate mixture with vanilla.
Beat butter and sugar to a cream.
Dissolve soda in water.
Mix cream tartar in flour.
Dissolve chocolate and beat in before putting in the flour.
Bake in one sheet.
Flavor with vanilla.
Let the cakes be cold before the frosting is put on.
Bake the cake in sheets.
Boil the caramel frosting twenty minutes.
Take from the stove and beat rapidly until cool enough to spread on the cake.
Melt some chocolate and put a thin coating over the top of the boiled frosting.
Make the lemon cake the same as Light Cake, omitting the flavoring.
If preferred, take an extra cup of flour instead of the cornstarch.
Bake in thin sheets.
Stir the lemon filling over the steam of a teakettle until thoroughly heated.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Chocolate | 1 oz (28g) semisweet | 155 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Vanilla | 1 tsp extract (4ml) | 12 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Cake | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
-
Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,020 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and provide structure as they set during baking.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness to the cake crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
- Chocolate
- Gives the cake and filling its chocolate flavor and color.
The step that matters
Break in the eggs off the heat, one at a time. Eggs added to a very hot paste can scramble, and each one must be fully blended before the next so the batter stays smooth and able to rise.
“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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