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Dessert

Chocolate Nut Cake

A moist chocolate cake studded with blanched almonds and flavored with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Chocolate Nut Cake

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Chocolate Nut 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

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs until well combined.

  2. Melt the grated chocolate and add it to the mixture along with the brandy and syrup.

  3. Stir in the cloves, allspice, cinnamon, flour, and baking powder until smooth.

  4. Fold in the halved almonds.

  5. Pour the batter into long shallow tins.

Bake

  1. 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown and stay tender.
Chocolate
Adds rich flavor and deep color to the cake.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Blanched almonds
Add crunch and a nutty texture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Checking for doneness with a toothpick. Cakes with a lot of chocolate, nuts and liquid can look set on top while the centre is still wet. A toothpick inserted into the centre should come out clean, since residual batter means the structure has not finished setting.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, chocolate, brandy, syrup, allspice, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, chocolate, brandy, syrup, allspice, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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