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Dessert

Chocolate Roll Pudding

A rolled chocolate cake with frosted layers, baked and then rolled into a cylindrical shape.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Roll Pudding

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 cake

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

  2. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth, then add the yolks.

  3. Mix in the sugar and flour until well combined.

  4. Dissolve the soda in the cold water and stir into the mixture.

  5. Pour the batter into a buttered pan and bake for 12-15 minutes.

  6. Sprinkle the top with milk after baking.

Make the frosting

  1. For frosting, beat 6 egg whites to a froth and divide into two parts.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar to one half and 1 teaspoon of sugar plus 3 tablespoons of grated chocolate to the other half.

  3. Spread half of each frosting mixture over the baked cake.

  4. Return to the oven for 5 minutes to harden the frosting.

Roll and finish

  1. Remove from the oven and roll up the cake.

  2. Frost the top and sides of the roll with the remaining frosting.

  3. Return to the oven to harden the frosting again.

  4. Transfer to a flat dish.

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. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 a stiff froth, they give the cake and frosting their airy structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness and tenderness to the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together when rolled.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps stabilise the whipped egg white frosting.
Soda
Reacts with the batter to help it rise and lighten.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and colour to one half of the frosting.

The step that matters

Rolling the warm cake. The cake must be rolled while still warm and pliable; once cooled it becomes brittle and is likely to crack. Rolling it before the baked sponge has had time to set in a shape keeps the roll intact.

“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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