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Dessert

Mocha Cake

A coffee‑flavored cake made by spreading a butter, egg yolk, sugar, and coffee mixture between sponge cake slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Mocha Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mocha butter

  1. Cream the butter until smooth.

  2. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Sweeten with castor sugar to taste.

  4. Gradually add strong coffee in small amounts, mixing continuously.

  5. Ensure the coffee is very strong to maintain the mixture's thickness.

Assemble and finish

  1. Slice the sponge cake.

  2. Spread the mixture thickly between the slices, reassembling the cake.

  3. Spread more mixture on the top and sides.

  4. Smooth with a knife dipped in hot water.

  5. Decorate the top with additional mixture using a funnel.

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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + coffeetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Unsalted butter
Creates a rich, smooth base that gives the mixture its body and mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the butter, adding richness and helping the mixture hold together.
Strong coffee
Supplies the mocha flavour and, added gradually, thins the mixture to a spreadable consistency.
Sponge cake
Forms the layers that the mocha mixture fills and coats.

The step that matters

Adding the coffee gradually. Adding coffee too quickly can cause the butter emulsion to split or turn grainy. Adding it in small amounts while mixing keeps the mixture smooth and thick enough to spread.

“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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