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Dessert

Chocolate Glace Cake

A chocolate cake with a glaze frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Glace Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar.

  2. Mix in the melted chocolate and the eggs, beating vigorously for five minutes.

  3. Stir in the milk.

  4. Combine the flour and baking powder, then mix into the batter.

  5. Add vanilla to taste.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a buttered shallow cake pan.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  3. Once cool, spread with glace frosting.

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. 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. 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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the cake tenderness and a rich flavour.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once heated and set.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and colour to the batter.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs and chocolate into the creamed butter and sugar. Beating for the full five minutes incorporates air into the fat and sugar and helps the eggs emulsify smoothly into the batter. This trapped air supports a lighter crumb once the cake bakes.

“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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