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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with butter, milk, flour, eggs, and a chocolate filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 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. Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. Sift the flour with the cream of tartar and gradually add to the mixture.

  5. In a separate bowl, beat the yolks of the eggs and then fold them into the batter.

  6. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and gently fold them into the batter.

  7. Pour the batter into jelly cake tins and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, dissolve the chocolate near the fire.

  2. In a saucepan, combine 1 ½ cups sugar with just enough water to cover it and bring to a boil.

  3. Boil until the mixture ropes, then gradually pour it into the whipped egg whites while whipping continuously.

  4. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla to the mixture and spread it on the cooled 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. 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 trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and structure; whites, beaten to stiff peaks, lighten the batter and help it rise.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a soft, tender texture when creamed with butter.
Baker's chocolate
Adds deep chocolate flavor and color to the filling.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar syrup to the ropes stage. Sugar syrup must reach the correct concentration before it is poured into the egg whites. If it is undercooked, the frosting stays runny; if overcooked, it turns grainy or hard once it cools.

“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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Filling 18French 14Marbled 13Black 11Dark 10Marble 7 See all 565 →

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