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Dessert

Wellesley Fudge Cake

A chocolate and walnut cake with a chocolate frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Wellesley Fudge Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar.

  2. Add the milk, grated chocolate, chopped walnuts, and beaten eggs, then mix well.

  3. Sift the flour with the baking powder.

  4. Fold the sifted flour into the mixture.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

Bake and frost

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Combine the butter, unsweetened chocolate, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla in a saucepan.

  3. Boil for 8 minutes, stirring constantly.

  4. Let cool before spreading on the cake.

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. Walnut + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,730 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 sugar to trap air and adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cake sets.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender crumb when creamed with butter.
Unsweetened chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and body of the frosting.

The step that matters

Boil the frosting for 8 minutes while stirring constantly. Boiling cooks the sugar mixture to a set consistency, and constant stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pan. The frosting thickens as it cools, so it must be spread after cooling rather than while hot.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, chocolate, egg, flour, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, chocolate, egg, flour, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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