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Dessert

Chocolate Layer Cake

A chocolate cake made in five layers, baked at 350°F, and layered with icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chocolate Layer 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 batter

  1. Dissolve the chocolate in a little milk over low heat.

  2. In a bowl, mix the dissolved chocolate with sugar, butter, and eggs.

  3. Add milk, baking soda, and cream of tartar, then mix well.

  4. Gradually add the flour and combine until smooth.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake in five layers at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  2. Layer the baked cakes with icing in between.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that works with baking soda to produce lift and a lighter crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets in the oven.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor in the crumb.
White sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb moist and tender.

The step that matters

Adding the flour gradually. Flour develops gluten once it is mixed with liquid, so overmixing can make the cake tough. Adding it gradually and stopping once the batter is smooth keeps the crumb 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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