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Dessert

Jelly or Chocolate Cake

A cake with a chocolate filling made from grated chocolate, milk, sugar, vanilla, and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Jelly or 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 batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sugar and butter until creamy.

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar (or baking powder).

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.

Bake and make the filling

  1. Pour the batter into jelly tins and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the chocolate filling, combine the grated chocolate, milk, and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.

  3. Bring to a boil, then stir in the cornstarch and remove from heat.

  4. Add the vanilla and let the mixture cool.

Assemble

  1. Spread the chocolate filling between the cakes and ice the top or dust 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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
Bind the batter and add structure as the cakes set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as the batter sets.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown and stay moist.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Cream of tartar or baking powder
Provides acid or leavening so the cake rises evenly.

The step that matters

Bring the chocolate filling to a boil before adding cornstarch. Cornstarch thickens only when heated to a boil, so the filling sets properly. Stirring it in off the boil can leave a thin, runny 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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