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Dessert

Jasper Cake

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

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 ↓

Jasper 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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add beaten yolks and mix well.

  4. Stir in sour milk and melted chocolate.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda dissolved in hot water.

  6. Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients, mixing until just combined.

  7. Fold in beaten egg whites and vanilla extract gently.

Bake

  1. Pour batter into greased cake pan and bake 30‑35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. 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

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and structure, while whipped whites lift and lighten the batter.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise and softens the crumb.
All-purpose flour
Gluten and starch form the cake's structure as the batter sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a soft, fine crumb when creamed with butter.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous mixing deflates it and leaves a denser 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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