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.
Make the chocolate mixture
Melt the grated chocolate, brown sugar, and milk in a double boiler until it boils, then remove from heat.
Beat in the vanilla extract and set aside to cool.
Make the batter
Cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.
Add the milk and the beaten yolks of the eggs, mixing well.
Gradually add enough flour to create a good batter.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Stir in the cooled chocolate mixture quickly and lightly.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into larger tins and bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.
Once cooled, spread each layer with chocolate filling and cover the entire cake with chocolate frosting.
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.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,020 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Sweet chocolate
- Provides the chocolate flavour and rich, dense body to the cake.
- Eggs
- Egg yolks add richness and whites, folded in, add lift and a light crumb.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds tenderness and fat for a moist texture.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Light brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and deepens the flavour of the chocolate.
The step that matters
Fold in the egg whites gently, then add the chocolate mixture quickly and lightly. Folding preserves the air whipped into the egg whites, which gives lift. Overmixing deflates that air and toughens the flour's gluten, leaving a dense, tough 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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