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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with butter, sugar, chocolate, flour, eggs, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. 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.

Prepare

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

  2. Grate the chocolate and place it in the oven to darken, stirring to prevent burning.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.

  2. Once cooled, add the darkened chocolate to the butter and sugar mixture.

  3. Beat in the egg yolks, then gradually mix in the flour.

  4. Finally, fold in the whisked egg whites until fully combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake tin and bake for one hour.

  2. Let the cake stand for one minute before turning it out of the tin.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Egg yolks add richness and whisked whites lighten the batter for a softer crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a smooth, creamed base.
Chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavour and colour of the cake.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air whisked into the egg whites, which helps the cake rise and stay light. Stirring vigorously would knock the air out and make the cake denser.

“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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