Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cake batter
Beat butter to a cream, stir in sugar, and beat until light.
Add milk, then flour and beaten egg whites.
Divide batter into two equal parts.
Grate half a cake of sweet chocolate into one part.
Bake and assemble
Bake in layers.
Alternate the white and dark cakes.
Make the custard
For custard, add a tablespoon of butter to one pint of milk and let it come to a boil.
Stir in two eggs beaten with one cup of sugar.
Add two teaspoons corn starch dissolved in a little milk.
Spread with custard.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Chocolate | 1 oz (28g) semisweet | 155 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| 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.
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + teatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together738 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Tea + corntop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together89 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Chocolate + teatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together163 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg whites add structure and lift to the batter as they set in the oven.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the custard so it spreads smoothly instead of staying runny.
- Sweet chocolate
- Adds flavour and colour, making the dark layer distinct from the white one.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cake crumb as it sets with heat.
The step that matters
Add the cornstarch to the boiling custard. Cornstarch must be dissolved in cold liquid first and stirred into hot milk, then cooked briefly, so starch granules swell and thicken evenly without lumps or a thin, runny custard.
“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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