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Dessert

Devil Cake

A layered chocolate cake with a creamy chocolate filling.

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 ↓

Devil 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 cake batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Beat in the eggs.

  3. Add the chocolate, milk, and other ingredients. Mix well.

  4. Bake in layers at 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

  1. Mix sugar and chocolate for the filling.

  2. Add milk to the filling mixture.

  3. Boil together until it thickens to a creamy consistency. Remove from heat.

  4. Add vanilla and the tablespoon of butter. Beat until cool enough to spread.

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. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender crumb when creamed with butter.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the cake and filling.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and deep colour of the cake and filling.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter and helps form the thickened filling.
Eggs (in the method)
Add structure and richness to the batter as they are beaten in.

The step that matters

Boiling the filling until it thickens. Sugar, milk and chocolate must be cooked until the mixture thickens to a creamy consistency, because the filling sets as it cools. Removing it from heat at the right point prevents scorching or a grainy, overly stiff result, and beating it while cooling gives a smooth texture that spreads easily.

“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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