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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with egg whites, powdered sugar, corn starch, butter, milk, flour, baking powder, grated chocolate, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

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. 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.

Make the cake

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

  2. In a large bowl, beat the 12 egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. In another bowl, mix the powdered sugar, corn starch, butter, milk, flour, and baking powder until smooth.

  4. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Make the icing

  1. For the icing, place the grated chocolate and 4 egg whites in a bowl over a pot of simmering water.

  2. Stir until creamy, then remove from heat and mix in the powdered sugar and vanilla.

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. Butter + milktop 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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they give the cake its light, airy structure.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake batter once baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and, melted into the icing, a creamy texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and icing, and helps the icing stay smooth.

The step that matters

Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter. Folding gently preserves the air whipped into the egg whites. Stirring or beating hard deflates the foam, leaving a denser cake.

“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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