Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Tea Cakes

A small chocolate cake made with butter, sugar, chocolate, eggs, flour, corn starch, milk, and vanilla, topped with nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Tea Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.

  2. Melt the chocolate over hot water and add it to the creamed mixture.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  4. Sift together the pastry flour, corn starch, salt, and baking powder.

  5. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk to the batter.

  6. Stir in the vanilla.

Bake

  1. Fill muffin pans two-thirds full with the batter.

  2. Sprinkle chopped nuts on top of each muffin.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until done.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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, setting the crumb as they cook.
Pastry flour
Provides the main structure while keeping the crumb tender.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and a rich flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the batter cream to a smooth base.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes rise.
Unsweetened chocolate
Gives the cakes their chocolate flavor and deep color.

The step that matters

Adding the dry ingredients alternately with the milk. Alternating flour and liquid in small additions keeps the batter smooth and limits gluten development, which helps prevent tough cakes.

“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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipes