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Chocolate Cream Cakes

A chocolate custard cake filled with chocolate cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Cream Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate cream

  1. Dissolve the chocolate with 3 tablespoons of water over boiling water.

  2. Gradually add ½ pint of milk, 1 beaten egg, and 2 tablespoons of dissolved corn starch.

  3. Cook the mixture over boiling water until thickened like custard.

  4. Stir in 2 tablespoons of fine sugar and flavor with vanilla.

Bake and fill the cakes

  1. Form the cake batter into long shapes on a dripping pan and bake until done.

  2. Once cooled, open each cake on one side and fill with the chocolate cream.

  3. Optionally, frost each cake or sprinkle with powdered sugar.

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

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

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Chocolate
Gives the cream its chocolate flavor and a rich, smooth body.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that becomes the custard when heated and thickened.
Egg
Helps thicken the custard as its proteins set during gentle cooking.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard as its starch swells and sets when heated with liquid.
Fine sugar
Adds sweetness to the cream and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Corn starch only thickens fully once the mixture is hot enough to swell its granules, so it must be cooked long enough. Egg proteins can curdle if overheated, so gentle heat over boiling water and steady stirring keep the cream smooth.

“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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