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Dessert

Hot Water Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made by dissolving chocolate in hot water and baking with butter, sugar, egg yolk, baking soda, baking powder, flour, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Hot Water Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the chocolate in ½ cup of boiling water.

  2. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Add the egg yolk and mix well.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in ½ cup of boiling water and add it to the mixture.

  5. Sift the baking powder with the flour and add it to the bowl.

  6. Stir in the dissolved chocolate and vanilla.

  7. Mix until smooth and pour into a greased cake pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or 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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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's crumb as it bakes.
Eggs
Egg yolk adds richness and helps bind the batter.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps give it a tender, browned crumb.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and deep colour of the cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to help the cake rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda and chocolate in boiling water. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly through the batter. Hot water also melts the chocolate smoothly, so the batter stays uniform and the cake rises evenly.

“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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