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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with walnut layers and coffee‑flavored whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA medium oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a medium oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chocolate and batter

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

  2. Melt the chocolate, sugar, and milk together in a saucepan.

  3. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  4. Add the beaten yolks of the eggs to the butter mixture.

  5. Stir in the melted chocolate mixture.

  6. Sift the flour with the Magic Baking Powder five times, then add it alternately with the milk to the batter.

  7. Add the vanilla and fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan or divide it into three layers.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. For the filling, whip the cream until stiff, sweeten to taste, and flavor with coffee extract.

  4. Layer the cake with chopped walnuts and whipped cream 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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 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 whites, folded in, give the cake lift and a light crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Magic baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and stays light.
Chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavor and deep color.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps loosen the batter so it bakes evenly.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air in the whites; stirring hard deflates them, leaving a denser, flatter 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.

More chocolate cake recipes

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

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