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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with oats and barley flour, sweetened with syrup and sugar, baked in a loaf pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Chocolate Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the fat, sugar, and egg yolks together.

  2. Add the syrup and mix well.

  3. Sift together the dry ingredients and add them alternately with the milk.

  4. Add the vanilla and melted chocolate.

  5. Fold in the well-beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a loaf pan.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about one hour.

  3. After 20 minutes, increase the temperature to 400°F (200°C).

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. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  3. Vanilla + oatstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Cinnamon + oatstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks emulsify the creamed fat and sugar, and beaten whites lighten the batter for rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
Chocolate
Adds cocoa flavour and a deep colour to the crumb.
Barley flour
Provides the main starch and structure for the crumb.
Ground rolled oats
Adds body and a tender, slightly nutty texture to the crumb.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, helping the cake stay soft.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites, which lifts the batter. Stirring hard deflates the foam and leaves a dense cake.

“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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