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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A moist chocolate cake with a chocolate frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

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 cake

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. Gradually add the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda, mixing until smooth.

  5. In a separate bowl, beat the 2 egg yolks and then add them to the batter.

  6. Pour the batter into square tins and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the frosting and finish

  1. For the frosting, heat the grated chocolate and the reserved egg whites over hot water until smooth.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in powdered sugar and vanilla until well combined.

  3. Frost the bottom of the cakes while both the cakes and frosting are hot for a smooth finish.

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. 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 add richness and structure to the batter; whites are whipped into the frosting.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavour, and creaming it with sugar traps air for lightness.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas that makes the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, working with baking soda to help the cake rise and stay tender.

The step that matters

Frost the bottom of the cakes while both the cakes and frosting are hot. Hot frosting stays fluid and spreads smoothly, while cooling makes it thicken and set unevenly. Warm cakes also soften the frosting slightly so it bonds and levels more easily.

“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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