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Dessert

French Chocolate Cake

A layered chocolate cake with custard filling made from egg whites, sugar, butter, milk, flour, baking powder, chocolate, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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French Chocolate Cake

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 ↓

French 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.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the egg whites in a bowl until stiff.

  3. Cream together the sugar and butter in another bowl.

  4. Add the egg yolks to the creamed mixture and mix well.

  5. Stir in the milk, flour, and baking powder until combined.

  6. Divide the batter into two bowls.

  7. Fold the grated chocolate into one of the bowls.

Bake the layers

  1. Pour the light batter into one layer of a cake pan.

  2. Pour the dark batter into another layer of the cake pan.

  3. Bake the layers until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make and spread the custard

  1. Combine the eggs, milk, sugar, and flour in a saucepan for the custard.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

  4. Spread custard between the layers and on top once the layers are cool.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff foam, they give the cake its light, airy structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake to rise in the oven.
Egg yolks
Add richness, moisture, and emulsifying fats to the batter.
Grated chocolate
Adds deep chocolate flavor and color to one of the batter layers.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard while it cooks. Constant stirring over medium heat keeps the starch and egg from settling and scorching, so the custard thickens smoothly instead of turning lumpy.

“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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