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Dessert

Devil Cake

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Devil 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.

Prepare the batter

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

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

  3. Add the beaten yolks of the eggs and mix well.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the mixture.

  5. Sift the flour with the cream of tartar and add it to the batter.

  6. Stir in the vanilla and melted chocolate.

  7. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into two greased layer pans.

  2. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. Let cool, then frost with vanilla frosting between the layers and on top.

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
Yolks enrich the batter and whipped whites lighten its structure as they set in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb once the batter sets.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavour, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake and dissolves easily into the creamed butter for a fine texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic chocolate and cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Baker's chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavour and deep colour, and adds richness to the crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air that makes the cake rise, so folding gently keeps that air in. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam and leaves a dense, flat cake.

“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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