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Dessert

Annie's Chocolate Cake

A moist chocolate cake with a chocolate icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Annie's 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 cake

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

  3. Add the eggs (reserve the whites of 2 eggs) and ⅔ cup of milk, mixing well.

  4. Gradually add the flour, then the remaining milk mixed with baking soda.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until done.

Make the icing and finish

  1. While the cake is hot, prepare the icing by beating the reserved egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and chocolate, mixing until smooth.

  3. Spread the icing over the hot 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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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
Creams with the sugar to give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness; the whites beaten stiff give the icing its airy body.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Cream of tartar
Acidic ingredient that reacts with baking soda to help the cake rise and stabilizes beaten whites.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff. Under-beaten whites stay loose and the icing runs off the cake, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy. Cream of tartar helps the foam hold its shape.

“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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