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Dessert

Never-fail Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with melted chocolate, butter, sugar, milk, pastry flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Never-fail Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Melt the chocolate and butter together.

  2. In a bowl, combine the melted mixture with sugar, milk, flour, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Add the eggs and vanilla, but do not stir until all ingredients are added.

  4. Beat the mixture with a hand mixer for five minutes.

Bake

  1. Pour into a loaf pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 35 minutes.

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.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Pastry flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Eggs
Add structure and richness as they set during baking, and help bind the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise and become light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it tender and moist.
Baker's chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavor and deep color of the cake.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Beating the batter for five minutes. Beating develops gluten in the flour and incorporates air, which affects the cake's final texture. Over-beating can make the crumb tough, so keep to the stated time and do not stir the batter before all ingredients are added.

“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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