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Dessert

Chocolate Nougat Cake

A chocolate cake with a nougat-like icing made from sugar, boiling water, and egg whites, topped with sliced almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Chocolate Nougat 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 batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar until smooth and glossy.

  3. Melt the chocolate with the boiling water and add to the butter and sugar mixture.

  4. Beat in the eggs (yolks and whites combined), then add the milk and flour alternately.

  5. Beat vigorously for a moment, then pour into three large or four small layer cake tins.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Once cool, spread boiled icing made from 3 cups sugar, 1 cup boiling water, and 3 egg whites between layers and on top.

  3. Add sliced almonds and flavor with vanilla or rosewater.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

  4. Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

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

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and give a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Add structure and richness to the batter as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake's layers together.
Unsweetened chocolate
Adds deep chocolate flavor and color to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar to lift the batter as it bakes.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so the baking soda reacts and helps the cake rise.

The step that matters

Beat vigorously for a moment, then pour into tins. Beating develops gluten and helps the leavening react evenly; over-beating can make the cake tough, so keep it brief and pour promptly before the rise fades.

“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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