Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the sweet milk and mix well.
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the mixture.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the batter gently.
Mix the egg yolks and grated chocolate into the same batter for the dark part.
Bake and assemble
Pour the white batter into one layer of a cake pan.
Pour the dark batter into another layer of the cake pan.
Bake the layers until a toothpick comes out clean.
Once cooled, layer the cakes alternating between white and dark.
Frost with chocolate icing.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Egg whites add lift and structure, while yolks add richness and tenderness.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake to rise in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and gives a rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.
- Grated chocolate
- Gives the dark layer its chocolate flavor and color.
The step that matters
Fold the egg whites into the batter gently.. Whipped egg whites trap air that gives the cake lift. Vigorous stirring deflates them, which makes the crumb dense and heavy.
“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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