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Dessert

Dark Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with dark chocolate, butter, milk, eggs, sugar, spices, and leavening agents.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Dark Chocolate Cake

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 chocolate custard

  1. Melt the chocolate over hot water.

  2. Gradually add the milk, stirring until smooth.

  3. Add the sugar and egg.

  4. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly.

  5. Cool the mixture.

  6. Add vanilla.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter.

  2. Add the sugar.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolks and the chocolate mixture.

  4. Beat thoroughly.

  5. Mix the dry ingredients.

  6. Sift the dry ingredients.

  7. Add them alternately with the sour milk.

  8. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Turn the batter into greased layer pans.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 35 to 40 minutes.

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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

Dark chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and deep color of the cake.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich, moist crumb.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and the whites lighten the batter when folded in.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the leavening to help the cake rise and stay tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a caramel-like depth of flavor.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air that gives lift. Folding gently keeps that air in the batter; overmixing deflates it and leaves a denser cake.

“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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