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Dessert

Chocolate Cream Cake

A layered chocolate cake with chocolate cream filling and glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 Cream Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cake layers

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix sugar, milk, butter, and ammonia into a smooth, thin batter.

  3. Pour the batter into well-greased cake tins and bake until golden.

  4. Let the cakes cool.

Make the chocolate cream

  1. To make the chocolate cream, boil 2 cups of milk.

  2. Stir in grated chocolate, sugar, and corn starch. Boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat. Add egg yolks. Stir rapidly.

  4. Return to heat to set the eggs.

  5. Add butter. Add vanilla extract.

  6. Spread chocolate cream between each layer.

Make the glaze and finish

  1. For the glaze, boil water, sugar, and grated chocolate until thick.

  2. Remove from heat. Add egg whites without beating.

  3. Use the glaze hot to cover the top and sides of 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. Milk + buttertop 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the chocolate cream and whites give the glaze body.
Corn starch
Thickens the chocolate cream so it spreads between the layers.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the cream and batter.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour in both the cream and the glaze.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the batter and the chocolate cream.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks to the hot cream. Yolks can scramble if added to very hot liquid without rapid stirring. Removing the pan from heat first and stirring quickly tempers them, then gentle reheating sets the custard smoothly.

“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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