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Dessert

Chocolate Cinnamon Cake

A chocolate cake flavored with cinnamon, baked in two-layer pans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chocolate Cinnamon 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 batter

  1. Beat the butter and sugar together until well combined.

  2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

  4. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, mixing thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into two layer cake pans lined with parchment paper.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 25 minutes.

Cool and finish

  1. Let the cakes cool in the pans if possible.

  2. Frost and fill with chocolate filling.

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

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

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps trap air when beaten with butter.
Eggs
Provide structure and moisture that bind the batter.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the cake rises.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter.

The step that matters

Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, mixing thoroughly.. Alternating dry and liquid keeps the batter smooth and well emulsified. Overmixing once the flour is in develops gluten, which makes the cake tough and dense.

“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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