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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with chocolate, brown sugar, milk, eggs, butter, flour, baking powder, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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.

Make the chocolate mixture

  1. Melt the chocolate and mix it with 1 cup of brown sugar, ½ cup of milk, and the egg yolk until thick. Let it cool.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, cream together ½ cup of butter and 1 cup of brown sugar.

  2. Add ½ cup of milk, 2 cups of flour, 2 eggs, and 2 teaspoons of baking powder to the butter mixture.

  3. Flavor with vanilla and then add the cooled chocolate mixture.

  4. Mix until well combined and pour into a greased baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake 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. 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

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich, soft crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and contributes a caramel-like flavour.
Royal baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Walter baker's chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and some richness to the batter.

The step that matters

Melting and cooling the chocolate mixture. If the chocolate is overheated it can seize or turn grainy, and if the mixture is added while still hot it can cause the butter to melt and the batter to lose its airy structure. Letting it cool first keeps the batter smooth and well emulsified.

“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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