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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with chocolate, sugar, milk, vanilla, egg yolk, butter, egg, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the chocolate mixture

  1. Melt the chocolate with ⅓ cup sugar, ⅓ cup milk, and ½ teaspoon vanilla in a bowl over a tea kettle until smooth.

Make the batter

  1. In another bowl, cream ¼ cup butter with ½ cup sugar.

  2. Add ⅓ cup milk, 1 egg, and ½ teaspoon baking soda to the butter mixture and mix well.

  3. Stir in 1 cup flour and then add the melted chocolate mixture.

  4. Mix until well combined and pour into a greased baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Egg
Helps bind the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich, soft texture.
Baking soda
Reacts to create gas bubbles that help the cake rise.
Chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavor and deep color.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into the pan promptly after mixing. Baking soda starts producing gas as soon as it meets the liquid and acid-free batter, so delaying the bake can weaken the rise. Mixing only until combined also avoids overdeveloping the flour's gluten, which would make the cake tough.

“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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