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Dessert

Marble Cake

A cake made by mixing a white batter with a chocolate batter and baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Marble 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. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Add the milk, flour, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla to the mixture and mix well.

Make the chocolate mixture

  1. In a separate saucepan, melt the chocolate with ½ cup of milk and 2 heaping teaspoons of sugar, stirring constantly until thickened.

  2. Remove from heat and add ½ teaspoon of vanilla and mix with the white mixture.

Bake

  1. Pour the combined mixtures into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 45 minutes.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter together.
Baking soda
Reacts to create gas bubbles that help the cake rise.
Chocolate
Gives the dark swirl its flavor and color when melted into the mixture.

The step that matters

Melting the chocolate with milk and sugar until thickened. Chocolate can seize or scorch if overheated, so stirring constantly over gentle heat keeps the dark mixture smooth and pourable for marbling.

“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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