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Baking

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made by cooking chocolate with milk, sugar, egg yolk, vanilla, then adding butter, sugar, eggs, milk, flour, baking soda, and baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

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.

Make the chocolate base

  1. Combine grated chocolate, sweet milk, brown sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla in a saucepan.

  2. Cook slowly until thickened like a cream.

  3. Cool the mixture.

Make the batter and bake

  1. Add butter, brown sugar, eggs, milk, and flour sifted with baking soda, then mix well.

  2. Pour into a greased baking pan.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 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

Flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake crumb as the batter bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping bind the batter and set it during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic and dark ingredients to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer crumb.
Grated chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavour and deep colour.

The step that matters

Cook the chocolate mixture slowly. Cooking gently keeps the egg yolk from scrambling while the mixture thickens into a smooth, creamy base. Rushing the heat can curdle the yolk and leave lumps.

“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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