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Dessert

Devils Food Cake

A chocolate cake made with grated chocolate, milk, sugar, eggs, flour, butter, baking soda, and warm water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Devils Food Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the chocolate

  1. Combine grated chocolate, sweet milk, sugar, and egg yolk in a saucepan.

  2. Cook the mixture slowly until melted.

  3. Cool the chocolate mixture.

Make the batter

  1. Cream sugar and butter together in a mixing bowl.

  2. Beat in the egg yolks.

  3. Add sweet milk and sifted flour.

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  5. Combine the dark chocolate mixture with the batter.

  6. Dissolve baking soda in warm water.

  7. Add the dissolved baking soda to the mixture.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  3. Use any desired filling between layers.

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
Add structure and moisture, and the whipped whites help lift the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich.
Grated chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavor, deep color, and richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
Baking soda
Helps the cake rise and become light.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Egg whites trap air that makes the cake light. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air in, so the cake rises instead of turning dense.

“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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