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Beetroot Fudge Cake

A very moist and unctuous fudge cake with sweet earthy hints from the maple syrup and beetroot

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Why it works: Chocolate and beetroot work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and 53 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 10

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

  • For the Cake
  • For the Topping

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Chocolate + beetroottop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,018 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

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

  4. Flour + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chocolate + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Hazelnutabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Chestnutabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against chocolate, egg, sugar, vanilla, maple syrup, flour, beetroot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).