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Dessert

Mahogany Cake

A chocolate cake with a butter and powdered sugar filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Mahogany 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. Boil ½ cup of milk with ½ cup of bitter chocolate until thick.

  2. In a separate bowl, cream together 1½ cups of sugar and ½ cup of butter.

  3. Add ½ cup of milk and 3 eggs to the sugar mixture and mix well.

  4. Dissolve 1 teaspoon of baking soda in a little boiling water.

  5. Add the dissolved baking soda to the mixture along with 2 cups of flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

  6. Combine the thick chocolate mixture with the batter and mix until smooth.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake in layers at 350°F (175°C).

  2. For the filling, beat together 1½ tablespoons of butter, 1½ cups of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until well combined.

  3. 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. 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. Milk + buttertop 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake bakes and sets.
Flour
Provides the main structure of the cake crumb as it sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the cake and to the filling.
Bitter chocolate
Adds deep chocolate flavour and dark colour to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps browning and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Combine the thick chocolate mixture with the batter and mix until smooth.. The chocolate mixture is thick and hot-stiff, so it must be fully blended in evenly; uneven mixing leaves streaks or dense pockets in the batter.

“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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