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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A layered chocolate cake made with separate light and dark batter mixtures.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate 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.

Prepare the batters

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the whites of 4 eggs until stiff.

  3. In another bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar, ½ cup butter, and ½ cup sweet milk.

  4. Add 2 cups flour and 1½ teaspoons baking powder to the mixture and mix well.

Make the dark batter and assemble

  1. For the dark part, beat 1 whole egg and the yolks of 3 eggs with ½ cup butter and 1 cup sugar.

  2. Stir in ½ cup milk, 2 cups flour, grated chocolate, and vanilla.

  3. Layer the light and dark mixtures alternately in a cake pan.

Frost

  1. Make frosting slightly softer than usual and mix in chocolate to taste.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Whipped whites add lift and a light, airy crumb; yolks add richness and tenderness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.

The step that matters

Layering the light and dark mixtures. Alternating the batters in the pan lets the two colors and textures bake together into a marbled layer; stiffly beaten whites must be folded gently so the light batter keeps its air.

“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.

More chocolate cake recipes

Filling 18French 14Marbled 13Black 11Dark 10Marble 7 See all 565 →

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