Why it works: Vanilla and chocolate 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 ↓
Chocolate Nut 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the cake
Melt the butter and chocolate together.
Mix in the vanilla, pastry flour, and chopped walnuts.
Pour the mixture into a shallow pan.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Serve
While warm, cut into squares with a sharp knife.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,020 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Vanilla + walnuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,730 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Walnut + chocolatetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,548 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Pastry flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender, moist crumb.
- Chocolate
- Supplies the main chocolate flavor and some richness to the batter.
- English walnuts
- Add crunch and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft cake.
The step that matters
Cutting while warm. Cutting the cake while it is warm with a sharp knife helps keep the squares clean. Once fully cooled, the cake sets more firmly and is easier to slice neatly.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vanilla, flour, butter, chocolate):
- Almondfits better
- Hazelnutfits better
- Macadamia nutfits better
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, flour, butter, chocolate. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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