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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with a simple chocolate frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

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 mixture

  1. Grate the chocolate finely.

  2. In a saucepan, combine grated chocolate, 5 tablespoons of sugar, and 3 tablespoons of water; stir over heat until smooth.

Make the batter

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

  2. Add the melted chocolate mixture to the creamed sugar and butter.

  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

  4. Mix the baking soda and cream of tartar into the flour, then add to the mixture alternately with the milk.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

Bake and frost

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For frosting, beat the egg white until stiff, then gradually add 1½ cups of powdered sugar until smooth.

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

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, helping the leavening react and stabilizing the texture.
Baker's chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and deep color of the cake.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda and cream of tartar to the flour. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide, and cream of tartar supplies it. Mixing them evenly into the flour before combining with the wet ingredients spreads the leavening so the cake rises uniformly instead of in pockets.

“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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