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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A sweet layered cake with chocolate filling baked in jelly pans.

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 ↓

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 large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the sweet milk, flour, corn starch, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, and vanilla; mix well.

  4. Pour the batter into jelly pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the filling and assemble

  1. While the cake is baking, prepare the filling by mixing the grated chocolate, powdered sugar, vanilla, and beaten egg whites.

  2. Spread the filling between the layers of the cake as soon as it is baked.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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 the sugar to add fat and tenderness to the crumb.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure, richness and moisture to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas that makes the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so it reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
Egg whites
Beaten into the filling to make it light and airy.

The step that matters

Spread the filling as soon as the cake is baked. Filling a hot cake lets the warm layers absorb moisture and soften the filling, while cooling first keeps the layers firm and the filling stable. Timing the spread on freshly baked layers can make the cake soggy or cause the filling to slide.

“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.

More chocolate cake recipes

Filling 18French 14Marbled 13Black 11Dark 10Marble 7 See all 565 →

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