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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with butter, sugar, milk, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, flour, grated chocolate, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and egg yolks, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda, cream of tartar, and flour.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.

Bake

  1. In a clean bowl, beat the reserved egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently fold the egg whites into the cake batter.

  3. Pour the batter into two greased loaf pans.

  4. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Frost and serve

  1. For the frosting, beat the reserved egg whites with grated chocolate, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth.

  2. Frost the cake while it is still hot.

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. Butter + creamtop 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

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give a tender, fine crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake, helps tenderize the crumb, and aids browning.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and moisture, and whipped whites lighten the batter.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake's crumb as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and richness to the frosting.

The step that matters

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives lift. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, leaving a denser, flatter cake.

“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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