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Dessert

Chocolate Cake, No. 1

A chocolate cake made with flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla.

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 Cake, No. 1

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, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

  3. Add the milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla extract to the dry ingredients.

  4. Beat the mixture on medium speed for 2 minutes until smooth.

Bake and cool

  1. Pour the batter into a greased 9x13 inch baking pan.

  2. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  3. Let the cake cool before serving.

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

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

  3. Cocoa powder + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cocoa powdertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,244 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and help bind the batter while setting in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to lift the batter and give a lighter crumb.
Vegetable oil
Adds moisture and keeps the crumb tender after baking and cooling.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.

The step that matters

Beat the batter until smooth. Beating develops gluten and traps air, so the cake's texture depends on mixing for the stated time until smooth without overworking it.

“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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