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Dessert

Mocha Cake

A layered cake with coffee and cocoa filling, made with eggs, flour, sugar, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Coffee and cocoa work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 91 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Mocha 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Beat the sugar and egg yolks until well combined.

  3. Mix the flour and baking powder.

  4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture.

  5. Melt the butter in the boiling milk.

  6. Add the melted butter and a little vanilla to the batter.

  7. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  8. Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.

Bake and fill

  1. Divide the batter into two greased cake pans.

  2. Bake the pans for 25–30 minutes.

  3. Beat together the powdered sugar and butter for the filling.

  4. Add the coffee, cocoa, and a little vanilla to the filling, mixing until smooth.

  5. Spread the filling between the layers and on top of the 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.

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. Coffee + cocoatop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together91 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Vanilla + cocoatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together357 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 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

Eggs
Whites trapped by beating create air for lift; yolks add richness and structure.
Flour
Starch and gluten form the cake's structure as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise and become light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it tender and moist.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, tenderness and a smooth, creamy filling.
Cocoa
Provides the chocolate flavour that gives the mocha its character.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stirring rather than folding deflates the whipped whites, losing the air that makes the cake light. Fold gently with a spatula until just combined.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Cocoathe original
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

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