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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with eggs, sugar, flour, butter, milk, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, grated chocolate, vanilla, topped with white frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the butter and 2 cups of sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and a pinch of salt.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the milk.

  5. In a small saucepan, combine the grated chocolate, ½ cup sugar, and boiling water. Stir over low heat until the chocolate thickens, then add to the cake batter.

  6. Flavor the batter with vanilla.

Bake and finish

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

  2. Once cooled, frost with white frosting.

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

Eggs
Add structure and richness as they bind the batter and trap air.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy creamed base.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to make the cake rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, pourable batter.

The step that matters

Creaming the butter and sugar. Beating butter and sugar until light and fluffy traps air in the fat, which helps the cake rise and gives it a tender texture. Under-creaming leads to 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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