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Dessert

Chocolate Layer Cake

A chocolate cake with a chocolate filling made from melted chocolate and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 Layer 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 cake batter

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Add the sifted sugar and beaten egg yolks, mixing well.

  3. Dissolve the sweet chocolate in the milk and add to the mixture.

  4. Stir in the grated boiled potato.

  5. Mix the flour with the baking powder, then add to the batter.

  6. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  7. Pour the batter into layer‑cake pans and bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.

Make the filling and assemble

  1. For the filling, melt the chocolate over hot water.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add confectioners' sugar until spreadable.

  3. Mix in the melted chocolate and vanilla.

  4. Spread the filling between the layers and on top of the cake.

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. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify the batter, helping it bake smooth and tender.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in to lighten the batter and give the cake its rise and structure.
Flour
Forms the main structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the layers rise and become light.
Sweet chocolate
Adds flavour, colour and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air whipped into the egg whites. Stirring hard knocks that air out, so the layers rise less and turn dense.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, chocolate, milk, flour, vanilla):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, chocolate, milk, flour, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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