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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with a chocolate batter and a cream filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the cake batter

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

  2. Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk, flour, eggs, baking soda, and cream of tartar, then mix until smooth.

  4. In a saucepan, combine the grated chocolate, ½ cup milk, and sugar to taste, and heat until it thickens. Flavor with vanilla.

  5. Pour the chocolate mixture into the batter and mix well.

Bake the cake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Make the cream filling

  1. For the cream filling, heat 1 pint of milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, whisk together the egg, cornstarch, and sugar to taste. Slowly add the hot milk to the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

  3. Return the mixture to the saucepan, cook until it thickens, then flavor with vanilla.

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake crumb as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cream filling as it heats with the milk.
Grated chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavor and color.

The step that matters

Cook the cream filling until it thickens. Egg yolks and starch must be heated gently while stirring; if the mixture gets too hot or is not stirred constantly, the eggs can scramble and the filling becomes lumpy instead of smooth and thick.

“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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