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Dessert

Chocolate-cream Cake

A moist cake made with sugar, butter, baking powder, milk, flour, egg whites, vanilla, and topped with powdered sugar icing and melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 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 cake

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

  2. In a bowl, sift together sugar, butter, and baking powder.

  3. Stir in the milk, then add flour and vanilla extract.

  4. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into the mixture.

  5. Pour into a well-buttered mold and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the icing and finish

  1. For the icing, boil powdered sugar and milk until thickened.

  2. Remove from heat and stir until white and spreadable.

  3. Flavor with vanilla and spread over the cake.

  4. Top with a thick layer of melted chocolate.

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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the cake a light, airy structure.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich, smooth crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning and a tender texture.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves and thickens with milk to form a smooth, spreadable icing.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while whipped to stiff peaks. Folding gently keeps that air in the batter; stirring vigorously deflates it, leaving a denser cake.

“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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