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Dessert

Mocha Cream Cake

A layered cake with coffee-infused buttercream filling and frosting.

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 ↓

Mocha Cream 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 batter

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

  2. Sift together the flour, sugar, and baking powder.

  3. In a bowl, break the eggs and add the milk.

  4. Pour the egg and milk mixture into the dry ingredients.

  5. Beat the mixture with an egg whip.

  6. Add the melted butter and vanilla. Mix the batter well.

  7. Divide the batter into two large cake pans.

  8. Bake the batter until golden.

Make the filling and frosting

  1. Boil the coffee in water until reduced to ½ cup.

  2. In a bowl, beat the unsalted butter until creamy. Gradually add the powdered sugar to the butter and mix well.

  3. Slowly add the black coffee and vanilla to the butter mixture, beating until light and creamy.

  4. Mix the black coffee with powdered sugar until thick.

Assemble

  1. Spread the filling between the baked layers.

  2. Spread the frosting over the top of the cake.

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

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

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

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

  4. Vanilla + coffeetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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 during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the cake and creamy filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens and thickens the buttery filling and frosting.

The step that matters

Beating the butter filling until light and creamy. Beating incorporates air into the butter and sugar, giving a light, smooth filling; under-beaten butter stays dense and greasy, and adding liquid too fast can cause it to separate.

“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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