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Dessert

Mocha Cake

A layered cake with mocha-flavored filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Coffee and cocoa work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 91 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Mocha 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.

Make the cake

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

  2. Beat the eggs well and gradually mix in the sugar.

  3. Add the flour and mix until combined.

  4. Stir in the boiling hot milk and baking powder.

  5. Pour the batter into two greased cake pans.

  6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the filling and assemble

  1. For the filling, cream the butter and confectioner's sugar together.

  2. Mix in the coffee, cocoa, and vanilla until smooth.

  3. Once the cakes are cool, spread the filling between the layers.

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. Coffee + cocoatop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together91 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Cocoa + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together357 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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
Beaten eggs give the cake structure and help it rise and set as it bakes.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Butter
Creamed butter adds richness and a tender texture to the filling.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay tender.
Cocoa
Adds chocolate flavour and deep colour to the filling.

The step that matters

Baking the cake layers. Baking until a toothpick comes out clean, without over-baking, keeps the layers moist and prevents them from drying out or becoming dense.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, milk, butter, coffee, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Cocoathe original
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, milk, butter, coffee, vanilla. 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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