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Dessert

Marble Cake

A cake made with butter, sugar, flour, egg whites, vanilla, and chocolate or cochineal for color.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Marble Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter with the sugar until white.

  2. Add the cream or milk, then stir in the flour and beaten egg whites alternately.

  3. Mix in the baking powder and vanilla extract.

  4. Divide the batter into three portions: add ¾ cup grated chocolate to one, 2 teaspoons cochineal to another, and leave the last portion white.

Bake

  1. In a pan, layer two tablespoons of each batter at a time.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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
Beaten whites trap air, giving the cake lightness and structure as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake once its proteins set in the oven.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
Sugar
Creamed with butter to aid aeration and adds sweetness and browning.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
Sweet chocolate
Provides the dark marbled portion and a deeper, sweet chocolate flavor.

The step that matters

Layering the batters. Spooning the batters in alternating layers, rather than mixing them, keeps the separate colors distinct so the marbled pattern forms when the cake is cut.

“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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