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Dessert

Italian Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with butter, sugar, chocolate, coffee, flour, baking powder, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,497 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells buttery, creamy. The science ↓

Italian 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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, rub together the butter and sugar until creamy.

  2. Add the grated chocolate, cold coffee, browned flour, and baking powder.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a loaf pan or two layer pans.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  3. Cool and frost with white or chocolate icing.

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. Chocolate + coffeetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Whites of eggs
Beaten whites trap air, giving the cake lift and a light crumb.
Browned flour
Provides the flour structure and a toasty, deep flavor to the cake.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the batter rise in the oven.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Granulated sugar
Creamed with butter, it sweetens the cake and helps create a tender texture.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and color to the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Beaten whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam, so fold gently and keep the batter airy.

“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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