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Dessert

Dark Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with grated chocolate, milk, brown sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, flour, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Dark Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate mixture

  1. Combine grated chocolate and ½ cup milk in a saucepan.

  2. Boil until thick as cream, then let cool.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together 1 cup brown sugar and ½ cup butter in a mixing bowl.

  2. Add 2 beaten eggs, ½ cup milk, and a few drops of vanilla flavoring. Mix well.

  3. Incorporate the cooled chocolate mixture into the batter.

  4. Sift together 2 cups flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder. Fold into the batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into layers or a loaf tin.

  2. Bake.

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. Milk + buttertop 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

Chocolate
Gives the cake its dark colour and rich chocolate flavour.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the cake and adds moisture and a caramel note.

The step that matters

Boil the chocolate mixture until thick. The chocolate and milk must thicken fully before cooling, since a thin mixture will make the batter loose and wet. Cooling it before adding prevents the eggs and butter from separating or scrambling.

“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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