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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A sweet cake made with sugar, butter, eggs, milk, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and chocolate filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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. 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 yolks of the eggs and mix well.

  4. Stir in the milk and mix until combined.

  5. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  6. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth.

  7. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  8. Fold the beaten egg whites into the cake batter gently.

Bake and fill

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

  2. For the filling, beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add the sugar.

  3. Mix in the grated chocolate and vanilla until well combined.

  4. Once the cake is cool, spread the filling between the layers.

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

Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and emulsify the batter; whipped whites lighten it and help it rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic ingredients to produce gas that leavens the cake.
Cream of tartar
Stabilizes whipped egg whites so they hold their peaks.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stirring too vigorously deflates the whipped whites, losing the air that lightens the cake. Fold gently so the batter keeps its rise.

“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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Filling 18French 14Marbled 13Black 11Dark 10Marble 7 See all 565 →

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