Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Layer Cake

A layered cake made with butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, egg whites, flour, baking powder, chocolate, and glazed with white and chocolate icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Layer 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 until creamy.

  2. Gradually add the sugar until light.

  3. Stir in the sweet milk and vanilla extract.

  4. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  5. Mix the baking powder with the flour.

  6. Alternately stir the flour and egg whites into the batter.

  7. Stir the melted chocolate into the remaining batter.

Bake

  1. Oil three deep baking dishes.

  2. Spread two-thirds of the batter into two of the dishes.

  3. Pour the chocolate batter into the third dish.

  4. Bake the cakes at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes.

Assemble and frost

  1. On a large plate, place a layer of white cake.

  2. Spread the white cake layer with white glace.

  3. Add the dark cake on top.

  4. Spread the dark cake with white glace.

  5. Place the third cake on top.

  6. Cover the assembled cake with chocolate glace.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 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

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light texture when beaten with butter.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks to lift and give the cake its airy structure.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise.
Melted chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and colour to the third layer.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the batter. Whipped whites hold the air that makes the layers rise. Stirring them in too vigorously knocks that air out, leaving dense, flat layers. Alternating flour and whites gently keeps the batter light.

“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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes