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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the chocolate in 5 tablespoons of boiling water.

  2. Beat the butter until creamy, then gradually add the sugar while continuing to beat.

  3. Add the egg yolks and beat again.

  4. Mix in the melted chocolate and milk, then add the flour.

  5. Beat the mixture vigorously, then gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  6. Add the vanilla and pour the batter into a greased pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 45 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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

Eggs
Egg whites trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and help bind the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb once baked.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps make the creamed butter light and tender.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to make the cake rise.
Chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavor and deep color.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring or folding them too hard knocks that air out, so the cake bakes up denser and flatter.

“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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