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Dessert

Chocolate Cakes

A small chocolate cake baked in dariole molds, finished with chocolate icing and pistachios.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the butter and caster sugar together until creamy.

  3. Beat the egg and sift the flour.

  4. Add the egg and flour alternately to the butter and sugar, beating for 5 to 10 minutes.

  5. Stir in the vanilla and baking powder.

Fill and bake

  1. Prepare small dariole moulds by mixing 1 teaspoon of caster sugar and 1 teaspoon of flour, buttering the moulds, and dusting them with the sugar and flour mixture.

  2. Pour the batter into the prepared moulds, filling them three-quarters full.

  3. Bake for 15 minutes, then let them stand for a few minutes before turning them out.

Finish and serve

  1. Cover each cake with chocolate icing and sprinkle with minced pistachios 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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Flour + pistachiotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together505 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vanilla + pistachiotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Chocolate + pistachiotop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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 tender, rich crumb.
Large egg
Adds structure and moisture, binding the batter as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a fine, aerated texture when creamed with butter.

The step that matters

Turning out the cakes after baking. Letting them stand for a few minutes lets the structure firm slightly, so the cakes hold their shape when turned out; turning them out too early can cause them to break or collapse.

Swap the pistachio

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar, flour, chocolate, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Macadamia nutfits better
  4. Pistachiothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, flour, chocolate, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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