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Dessert

Black Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with butter, milk, eggs, flour, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, vanilla, and melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Black Chocolate Cake

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 ↓

Black 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 the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, 2 cups flour, 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, ½ cup butter, ½ cup milk, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Make the chocolate mixture

  1. In a saucepan, cut the chocolate into pieces and add ⅔ cup milk, stirring constantly until dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in 1 beaten egg and ¼ cup sugar.

  2. Cook the chocolate mixture until thick like mustard, then add it to the cake mixture.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake until done.

  2. Ice with thick white icing once cooled.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cream + buttertop 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the crumb as they cook.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, helping control texture and reacting with baking soda for lift.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic ingredients to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Baker's chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavor and dark color.

The step that matters

Cooking the chocolate mixture. Cooking it until thick, like mustard, thickens the mixture before it is added to the batter. Stirring constantly prevents the milk and chocolate from scorching or separating.

“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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