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Dessert

Fudge Cake

A moist chocolate cake with a cocoa filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fudge 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 batter

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

  2. Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in the milk, then gradually add the flour and baking powder.

  5. Melt the chocolate and fold it into the batter along with the walnuts.

Bake and fill

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

  2. For the filling, melt the butter and mix in the cocoa, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth.

  3. Once the cake is cool, spread the filling on top.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Chocolate + cocoatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  3. Milk + cocoatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together643 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Eggs
Add structure and richness, binding the batter as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps the creamed sugar hold air.
Flour
Forms the cake's main structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and turns light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, traps air for a lighter crumb.
Cocoa
Gives the filling its chocolate flavor and deep color.

The step that matters

Creaming the sugar and butter. Beating until light and fluffy traps air in the fat that expands in the oven. Under-creaming gives a dense cake, while the batter should be mixed only until combined after the flour goes in to avoid toughness.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, chocolate, walnut):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Macadamia nutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, chocolate, walnut. 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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