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Dessert

Mocha Cake

A cake made with eggs, sugar, butter, flour, and coffee essence, topped with a coffee-flavored icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Mocha 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. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs into different bowls.

  2. Add sugar to the yolks and beat until creamy.

  3. Sift together the flour and baking powder.

  4. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  5. Gently fold the flour and whipped whites into the yolk mixture.

  6. Butter a cake tin and pour in the batter.

  7. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

  8. Once cooked, turn the cake onto a sieve to cool.

Make and finish the icing

  1. In a bowl, cream together the butter and icing sugar until soft.

  2. Add coffee essence gradually until the icing reaches the desired color and consistency.

  3. Cover the cooled cake with the icing and decorate using a piping bag.

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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
Whipped whites trap air for lift, and the yolks add richness and structure to the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the cake rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once heated, holding the risen batter together.
Castor sugar
Beaten with the yolks to create a creamy base and add sweetness and tenderness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb in the cake, and body to the icing.
Icing sugar
Sweetens and thickens the buttery icing, giving it a smooth, spreadable texture.

The step that matters

Folding the whipped whites into the yolk mixture. Over-mixing or stirring vigorously knocks out the air trapped in the whites, so the cake rises less and turns out denser. Fold gently until just combined.

“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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