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Dessert

Annie's Chocolate Cake

A moist chocolate cake with a vanilla 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.

Prepare

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

Make and bake the batter

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

  2. Add the eggs and two-thirds of the milk, mixing well.

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

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

Ice and serve

  1. While the cake is hot, spread the icing made from the reserved egg whites, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and vanilla chocolate.

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
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb and flavor.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and keep it moist.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidity in the batter to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, even batter.

The step that matters

Spread the icing while the cake is hot. Icing applied to a hot cake melts slightly and sinks into the surface, so it spreads more easily and bonds to the crumb. Icing spread on a cold cake sits on top and can be stiffer and harder to spread evenly.

“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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