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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A moist chocolate cake made with flour, sugar, butter, sour cream, eggs, baking soda, chocolate, milk, molasses, water, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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 batter

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the sugar and butter together until creamy.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Gradually add the flour, then mix in the sour cream and baking soda.

Make the chocolate mixture

  1. In a saucepan, combine the chocolate, milk, molasses, water, and butter.

  2. Heat the mixture until it thickens, then add vanilla extract.

  3. Combine the chocolate mixture with the batter and mix until smooth.

Bake

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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 sets in the oven.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and acidity, tenderizing the crumb and activating the baking soda.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay tender.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep flavor, and extra browning to the cake.

The step that matters

Heating the chocolate mixture until it thickens. If it is overheated or scorched, the milk solids and sugars can burn and taste bitter. Heat gently and stir constantly until it thickens, then cool it slightly before combining with the batter so the batter does not curdle or deflate.

“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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