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Dessert

Chocolate Custard Cake

A layered chocolate cake with a chocolate custard filling made from eggs, milk, butter, and chocolate.

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 ↓

Chocolate Custard 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 cake batter

  1. Break 2 eggs into a large cup and fill the cup with cream, then beat well together.

  2. In a bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, 1½ cups flour, and 2 teaspoons baking powder.

  3. Add the cream and egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well.

  4. Divide the batter into 2 tins.

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

Make the custard

  1. Place ½ pint milk in a double boiler and bring to a boil.

  2. Dissolve 1 teaspoon cornstarch in a little cold milk, then add to the boiling milk.

  3. Add 2 beaten eggs, ¼ teaspoon salt, and the grated chocolate.

  4. Stir carefully until thick, then remove from heat.

  5. Stir in ½ teaspoon vanilla and let the custard cool.

Assemble

  1. Spread the custard between the cake 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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
Bind the batter and, when cooked into the custard, thicken it and add richness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth custard when heated.
Chocolate
Gives the custard its chocolate flavour and dark colour.

The step that matters

Stir the custard carefully until thick. Egg proteins and starch thicken the custard as it heats, but overheating or rapid boiling can curdle the eggs and leave lumps. Gentle, constant stirring in a double boiler keeps it smooth.

“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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