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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with a chocolate cream filling and chocolate 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Cream together brown sugar and butter.

  3. Add sweet milk and eggs, mixing well.

  4. Dissolve baking soda in a little warm water and add to the mixture.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine grated chocolate, brown sugar, sweet milk, egg yolk, and vanilla.

  6. Cook the mixture until thick like cream.

  7. Mix the chocolate cream into the cake batter.

Bake and frost

  1. Pour the batter into two layer pans or one shallow pan.

  2. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. Let the cake cool before frosting.

  4. For frosting, dissolve white sugar in enough water to cover it.

  5. Add grated chocolate to the sugar solution and boil until thick enough to spread.

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
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once heated.
Grated chocolate
Gives the cake chocolate flavor and color in both the cream and the frosting.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, along with a molasses flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the chocolate cream until thick like cream. Cooking the chocolate mixture drives off water and thickens it before it goes into the batter. Undercooked cream stays thin and can make the batter too wet, while overcooking can make it stiff and grainy.

“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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