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Dessert

Mocha Filling

A chocolate and coffee flavored filling for cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cocoa powder and coffee work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 541 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Mocha Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, cream together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and butter.

  2. Add the hot coffee and vanilla extract, mixing until smooth.

Assemble

  1. Spread the filling on the cake after it has cooled.

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. Cocoa powder + coffeetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together541 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Cocoa powder + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and body, and dissolves smoothly into the filling when mixed with hot liquid.
Cocoa powder
Provides the chocolate flavor and dark color of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the filling rich and gives it a creamy texture.
Hot coffee
Deepens and intensifies the chocolate flavor and helps dissolve the cocoa and sugar.

The step that matters

Adding the hot coffee and mixing until smooth. Hot liquid dissolves powdered sugar and cocoa far better than cold, so mixing until smooth helps prevent gritty lumps and gives an even, glossy filling.

“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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