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Dessert

Chocolate Cake with Custard Filling

A chocolate cake layered with a custard filling made from milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Chocolate Cake with Custard Filling

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. Cream the butter until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the sugar, then mix in the beaten egg yolks and grated chocolate.

  3. Add the milk and flour mixed with baking powder alternately.

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites and flavor to taste.

Bake and make the custard

  1. Divide the batter into 3 layer-cake pans and bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  2. For the custard, heat 2 ½ cups milk with the beaten egg yolks and sugar until boiling.

  3. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little milk and add it to the boiling mixture.

  4. Stir until thickened, then cool and flavor with vanilla.

  5. Mix in the ground almonds and use as filling between 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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they trap air that lifts the batter as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich the batter and thicken the custard as they set with heat.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise and stay light.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard into a smooth, spreadable filling when boiled.

The step that matters

Stir the custard until thickened. The custard must reach a full boil for the cornstarch to thicken it properly. Stop too early and the filling stays runny; keep it on the heat too long and it can scorch on the bottom of the pan.

“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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