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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with butter, powdered sugar, flour, egg whites, milk, vanilla, and chocolate icing, topped with maple icing.

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 ↓

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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the egg whites and mix well.

  4. Sift together the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the mixture, alternating with the milk.

  5. Stir in the vanilla extract.

  6. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the icings

  1. For the chocolate icing, melt the Baker's chocolate with ½ cup milk and butter in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. Cook until it thickens, then let it cool and beat until smooth.

  3. For the maple icing, boil the maple syrup and brown sugar together until it forms a soft ball in water.

  4. Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg whites and beat until cool and fluffy.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 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. Flour + buttertop 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

Egg whites
Add structure and lift to the batter, helping the cake rise and set.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness through fat creamed with the sugar.
Maple syrup
Adds sweetness and flavor to the maple icing and helps it set soft.

The step that matters

Cooking the chocolate icing. Cooking the chocolate mixture over low heat until it thickens keeps it from scorching or seizing. Beating it only after it cools lets it set smooth and glossy rather than grainy.

“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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