Skip to main content
Dessert

Mahogany Cake

A chocolate cake flavored with almond extract, baked in a loaf or layer tin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mahogany Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the eggs and cream again until well combined.

  3. Mix in ½ cup of milk and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

  4. Sift the flour with 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar and fold into the batter.

Make the chocolate and finish

  1. Boil ½ cup of bitter chocolate in ½ cup of milk until thick, then let it cool.

  2. Add the cooled chocolate to the batter along with 1 teaspoon of almond extract and mix well.

  3. Pour the batter into loaf or layer tins.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavour.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cake sets in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic ingredients to release gas, helping the cake rise and brown.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that works with the baking soda to lift the batter and keep the crumb tender.
Bitter chocolate
Adds deep chocolate flavour and colour, giving the cake its mahogany tone.

The step that matters

Boil the chocolate in milk until thick. Cooking the chocolate and milk until thick concentrates the mixture and lets it cool to a stable paste; under-cooking leaves it thin and can make the batter too wet.

“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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipesChocolate Drop CookiesChocolate Drop Cookies50 recipes