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Dessert

Marble Cake

A baked cake with alternating white and chocolate batter, finished with white icing and nuts.

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 ↓

Marble Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Add the well-beaten egg yolks, alternating with the warm water and sifted flour mixed with salt and baking powder.

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites, then add the vanilla and nuts.

Marble and bake

  1. Divide the mixture into two parts: one half remains white.

  2. Add the ground chocolate to the other half.

  3. Alternate the two mixtures in a loaf or round cake mold to create a marble effect.

  4. Bake for about 40 minutes.

Ice and decorate

  1. Ice with white icing and decorate with halves of nuts.

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. Flour + buttertop 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

Eggs
Egg yolks bind the batter and egg whites, folded in whipped, lighten it for a tender structure.
Pastry flour
Flour forms the cake's structure once its proteins set during baking.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, butter traps air and adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps hold air for a lighter texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake to rise and become light.
Ground chocolate
Gives the darker marbled portion its chocolate flavour and colour.

The step that matters

Alternating the light and chocolate batters. Pouring the two batters in loose, uneven layers keeps the marbling distinct. Overmixing them blends the colours into a uniform brown batter and loses the marble effect.

“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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