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Dessert

Chocolate Oh Coffee Cake

A cake that can be flavored with chocolate or coffee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Margaret · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Chocolate Oh Coffee Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Add 3 ozs butter and 6 ozs flour.

  2. Add 3 ozs sugar.

  3. Add 2 tablespoonfuls milk, 1 teaspoonful baking powder, essence of vanilla, powdered chocolate or coffee.

  4. Beat sugar and butter to a cream; add milk and eggs, well beaten; vanilla essence to taste.

  5. If coffee cake is desired, mix one-and-a-half tablespoonfuls coffee.

  6. If chocolate, mix 1 tablespoon powdered chocolate with flour and baking powder, adding it last.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake for one hour in a steady oven.

  2. When cold, divide into three and spread with butter filling.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

849Calories
29 gProtein
23 gFat
125 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hamilton, Margaret. 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. 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.

  1. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Vanilla + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Vanilla and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 27,347 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 add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Butter (in the method)
Creams with the sugar to add tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Flour (in the method)
Forms the main structure of the cake as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and stays light.
Sugar (in the method)
Creamed with the butter for sweetness and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Beating sugar and butter to a cream. Beating air into the fat and sugar creates the structure that lifts the batter. Under-beating leaves a dense cake, while the eggs must be well beaten and added so the batter does not curdle.

“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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