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Dessert

80 Marbled Chocolate Cake

A layered chocolate and white cake with chocolate spots baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

80 Marbled Chocolate Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Make a batter as for white cake.

  2. Take out 1 cup of the batter and mix in 5 teaspoons of grated chocolate moistened with Ewell's X. L. Dairy Bottled Milk and vanilla extract.

Layer and bake

  1. Pour a layer of the white batter into a baking pan.

  2. Drop the chocolate batter in spots on top of the white batter.

  3. Spread the remaining white batter over the chocolate batter.

  4. Bake in a well-heated oven at 400°F (200°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. 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. Butter + milktop 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. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Add structure as their proteins set during baking, holding the cake together.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, lifting the batter so the cake rises.
Chocolate
Gives the darker batter its flavor and color, creating the marbled pattern.
Milk
Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and keeps the cake soft.

The step that matters

Dropping the chocolate batter in spots. The chocolate batter is denser and darker than the white batter. Spreading it fully or stirring it in blurs the pattern, so it should be placed in separate spots and left mostly unmixed to keep the marbling visible.

“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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