Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Mocha Torte
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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and table essence.
In separate bowls, beat the egg yolks and egg whites until fluffy.
Combine the yolks with the flour mixture, then gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Bake the layers
Divide the batter into two layers and bake until golden.
Make and fill
For the filling, beat together the cream, powdered sugar, and Mocha until smooth.
Spread the filling between the baked layers.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Whites trap air for a light structure, and yolks add richness and set as the cake bakes.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure that holds the cake's shape as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven, helping the layers rise and become light.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the filling and dissolves smoothly into the cream for a fine texture.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, giving the filling a soft, spreadable body.
- Mocha
- Provides the coffee-chocolate flavour and aroma of the filling.
The step that matters
Gently folding in the beaten egg whites. Beaten whites hold air that makes the layers light. Stirring hard or overmixing deflates the foam, so the batter bakes dense and flat instead of tender.
“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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