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Dessert

Dabk Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with dark brown sugar, butter, eggs, milk, flour, grated chocolate, vanilla, baking soda, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Dabk 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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the dark brown sugar and butter.

  3. Add the eggs and sweet milk, mixing well.

  4. Gradually stir in the flour.

  5. In a separate saucepan, combine the grated chocolate, milk, dark brown sugar, and egg. Cook over low heat, stirring until smooth, then add vanilla.

  6. Mix this chocolate mixture into the first batter. Sprinkle baking soda over the mixture and stir well.

Bake and frost

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the frosting, boil sugar and milk for eight minutes. Beat the frosting until light and fluffy with a fork.

  3. Spread frosting between the layers of the 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. 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and moisture as the cake sets.
Flour
Forms the cake's main structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidity in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Dark brown sugar
Adds moisture, sweetness and a deeper caramel flavor to the cake.
Grated chocolate
Supplies chocolate flavor and color to the batter.

The step that matters

Sprinkle baking soda over the mixture and stir well. Baking soda needs an acid in the batter to react and release gas. Stirring it in evenly keeps the rise uniform, while clumps can leave bitter spots or uneven holes.

“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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