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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with butter, sugar, milk, flour, baking powder, egg yolks, egg whites, grated chocolate, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. Gradually stir in the flour and baking powder.

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

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

Bake and make the dressing

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the dressing, combine the grated chocolate, sugar, and milk in a saucepan.

  3. Add the butter and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for 10 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

Cool and assemble

  1. Allow both the cake and dressing to cool before assembling.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air, giving the cake lift and a light crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Flour
Its proteins set during baking, providing the structure that holds the cake together.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming air into the batter.
Grated sweet chocolate
Forms the flavoured dressing, adding chocolate taste and a glossy, thick body.

The step that matters

Boiling the dressing for 10 minutes while stirring. Constant stirring keeps the chocolate and milk from scorching on the base of the pan. Boiling thickens the mixture as water evaporates and sugar concentrates, so the dressing sets properly once cooled.

“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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