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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A moist chocolate cake with boiled icing.

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 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.

Make the cake

  1. In a saucepan, boil the milk, chocolate, and 1 cup of sugar together.

  2. Cream the butter and remaining sugar.

  3. Add the eggs and vanilla.

  4. Mix in the flour and baking soda.

  5. Add the hot chocolate mixture.

  6. Pour the batter into two greased jelly tins.

  7. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the frosting

  1. Combine 1 cup sugar and ⅓ cup boiling water in a saucepan for the boiled icing.

  2. Boil without stirring until it threads.

  3. Beat the reserved egg white.

  4. Slowly pour the syrup over it while beating until fluffy.

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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb.
Eggs
Provide structure and help bind the batter as they set during baking.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic chocolate mixture to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Unsweetened chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavour and deep colour of the cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup without stirring until it threads. Stirring while sugar syrup boils can cause crystallisation, making the icing grainy. Boiling it undisturbed lets it reach the right concentration to form a smooth, fluffy frosting when poured over the beaten egg white.

“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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