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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with butter, sugar, cream, egg whites, flour, baking powder, vanilla, confectioner's sugar, milk, and melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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. Beat the butter until creamy, then add the sugar and mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the cream and egg whites, then add to the butter mixture.

  4. Sift the flour with the baking powder and gradually add to the mixture, stirring until smooth.

  5. Add vanilla extract to taste and mix well.

Bake and ice

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the icing, mix the confectioner's sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth.

  3. Spread a heavy layer of icing on the cooled cake.

  4. For a second layer, mix another batch of icing with the melted chocolate and spread it 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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 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
Creaming with sugar traps air, giving the cake a tender, light crumb.
Egg whites
Provide structure and lift as they set in the oven, helping the cake rise.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the batter rise in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.
Melted chocolate
Adds rich chocolate flavor and color to the second icing layer.

The step that matters

Baking the batter. Batter with baking powder must go into the oven promptly after mixing, since the gas-releasing reaction starts once wet and dry ingredients combine. Baking to a clean toothpick test ensures the structure is set so the cake does not collapse or stay gummy in the center.

“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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