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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A layered chocolate cake with butter, sugar, milk, eggs, flour, leavening, and chocolate icing.

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 quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and eggs (reserve the whites of 3 eggs for icing) and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.

Bake and ice

  1. Divide the batter into three deep jelly tins and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the icing, beat the reserved egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gradually add the powdered sugar, grated chocolate, and vanilla, mixing until smooth.

  4. Once the cakes are cool, spread icing between the layers and on top.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and their whites whip into stiff peaks for the icing.
Flour
Forms the cake's main structure once its proteins set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic components to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to give the cake lift and an even rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a soft, tender texture when creamed.

The step that matters

Mixing the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cake tough. Mixing only until just combined keeps the crumb tender.

“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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