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Dessert

Chocolate Nougat Cake

A moist chocolate cake with a nougat filling made from brown sugar, butter, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Nougat 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, mix 1 cup brown sugar, 3 egg yolks, and ½ cup butter until creamy.

  3. Add ½ cup sour cream or milk, 2 cups flour, and 1 teaspoon baking soda. Mix well.

Make the chocolate filling

  1. In a separate pot, combine 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup grated chocolate, and ¼ cup milk. Cook until thick, then cool slightly.

  2. Add the chocolate mixture to the cake batter and flavor with vanilla extract.

Bake

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

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

Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter for a tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor in the cake.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Sour cream or milk
Adds moisture and mild acidity that works with baking soda.
Grated chocolate
Contributes deep chocolate flavor and color to the cooked filling.

The step that matters

Cook the chocolate mixture until thick. Cooking the sugar, chocolate and milk thickens the mixture as it cools. Undercooked filling stays thin and can dilute the batter, while overcooking can make it grainy or stiff once cooled.

“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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