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Dessert

Light Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with a light batter and a chocolate filling and frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Light 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, mix sugar, beaten eggs, and milk.

  3. Sift together flour and baking powder, then add to the mixture.

  4. Stir in vanilla, melted butter, and melted chocolate. Beat the batter thoroughly.

  5. Pour into a greased cake pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the filling and frosting

  1. For the filling and frosting, heat 1 cup sugar, 2 squares chocolate, and ½ cup water until dissolved.

  2. Boil until it spins a thread, then slowly pour into 1 stiffly beaten egg white while beating constantly.

  3. Continue beating until stiff enough to spread.

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. Vanilla + milktop 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. Milk + buttertop 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cake sets.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor in the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps brown it while keeping the crumb moist.
Unsweetened chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavor and deep color.

The step that matters

Adding the hot syrup to the egg white. Pouring the boiling sugar syrup slowly while beating keeps it from cooking the egg white in lumps and lets the mixture whip into a stable, spreadable frosting.

“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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