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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with flour, butter, sugar, eggs, milk, baking powder, vanilla, powdered sugar, chocolate, and egg whites.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cake

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Add the eggs, beating the yolks and whites separately.

  4. Mix in the milk.

  5. Sift the flour with the baking powder and add it to the mixture along with the vanilla.

  6. Pour the batter into a flat pan and bake for about 30-35 minutes.

Frost and finish

  1. For the frosting, beat the egg whites to a froth.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar and chocolate to the egg whites.

  3. Once the cake has cooled for 30 minutes, spread the frosting on top.

  4. Return the cake to the oven with the door open for 10-15 minutes to harden the frosting.

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. Flour + buttertop 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake up as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness through fat that coats the flour.
Eggs
Give structure and lift when whites are beaten separately, and add richness from the yolks.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, so the cake rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay tender.
Egg whites
Whipped to a froth, they form the airy base of the frosting.

The step that matters

Returning the cake to the oven to harden the frosting. Heating the frosting briefly with the door open dries and sets its surface. Too long or too hot can overbake the cake or scorch the frosting, so watch it closely.

“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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