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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with lemon peel, baked in a jelly tin and topped with a chocolate-egg white icing.

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 ↓

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. 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the sweet milk and egg yolks, mixing well.

  4. Combine the flour and baking powder.

  5. Add the dry mixture to the batter.

  6. Fold in the grated lemon peel.

  7. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  8. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased jelly tin.

  2. Bake for about 30-35 minutes.

Make the chocolate icing and assemble

  1. Melt 1/3 cup of chocolate in a small tin cup on the back of the stove.

  2. Make a stiff icing with the egg whites and sugar.

  3. Add the melted chocolate and flavor with vanilla.

  4. Spread the icing on the layers and on 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. 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. 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 light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and structure; whites beaten to stiff peaks lighten the batter and help it rise.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become airy.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a fine, soft texture.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and color to the icing.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Beaten egg whites hold air that makes the cake light. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, leading to a dense cake, so fold gently until just combined.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, egg, flour, chocolate, 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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