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Dessert

Black Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with a coconut filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Black Chocolate Cake

Why it works: Vanilla and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Black 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 cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the flour, milk, and baking powder, mixing well.

  4. Fold in the grated chocolate just before adding the flour.

  5. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the batter.

  6. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine the grated chocolate, sugar, and milk in a double boiler.

  2. Heat until hot, then stir in the beaten egg and let it boil for 20 minutes.

  3. Once cool, mix in the grated coconut.

Assemble

  1. Spread the filling between the layers of the cooled cake.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + coconuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Whites beaten to stiff peaks lighten the batter, and yolks add richness and structure.
Flour
Forms the cake's main structure once the batter is set by heat.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises in the oven.
Baker's vanilla chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and color to both the cake and the filling.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiff whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates it and gives a dense cake.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, milk, egg, vanilla, chocolate):

  1. Coconutthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, milk, egg, vanilla, chocolate. 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.

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