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Dessert

Mocha Cake

A simple cake flavored with coffee essence and iced with icing sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

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

  2. Cream the margarine and sugar together.

  3. Add the egg and beat thoroughly.

  4. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then add the milk.

  5. Spread the mixture in a well-greased and lined flat tin.

  6. Bake until firm.

Ice and serve

  1. Once cool, prepare the icing by stirring the icing sugar, coffee essence, and warm water over gentle heat for a few seconds.

  2. Pour the icing over the cake and cut into fancy shapes.

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

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

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Margarine
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the cake rises and becomes light.
Icing sugar
Forms a sweet coating that sets into the glossy mocha icing.

The step that matters

Cream the margarine and sugar together. Beating fat and sugar well traps air bubbles that expand in the oven, so the cake rises evenly. Under-creamed batter gives a dense, heavy result.

“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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