Name: Spanish Chocolate Cake
Ingredients: 2 cups sugar; ½ cup butter; 1 ½ cups flour; 1 cup water; 2 eggs; 2 teaspoons baking powder; ½ cake chocolate, melted in ⅓ cup milk over steam; 1 teaspoon baking powder (added last)

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Spanish Chocolate 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.

Prepare and mix

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix sugar, butter, flour, water, eggs, and 2 teaspoons of baking powder until well combined.
Stir in the melted chocolate and add the additional teaspoon of baking powder.

Bake and finish

Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool the layers and fill with plain boiled frosting.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,128 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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: Provide structure and richness as they set during baking.
Flour: Forms the structure of the cake crumb as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Butter: Adds fat for tender texture and rich flavor.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.
Chocolate: Adds chocolate flavor and color to the batter.

“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.