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Dessert

One Egg Devils Food Cake

A chocolate cake made with one egg, chocolate, sugar, milk, shortening, baking soda, vanilla, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

One Egg Devils Food 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. Cook chocolate and ¼ cup milk with the egg yolk until thick like custard. Set aside to cool.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the shortening and add the sugar.

  2. Combine the cooled chocolate mixture with the creamed shortening and sugar.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in ¾ cup milk and add it alternately with the flour to the mixture.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg white.

Bake

  1. Bake in two layers in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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

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

  4. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chocolate + sugartop 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

Chocolate
Gives the cake its deep chocolate flavor and dark color, and adds richness from its fat.
All-purpose flour
Provides the protein structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb soft and tender.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic components to release gas that helps the cake rise.
Egg
The yolk thickens the chocolate custard, and the beaten white adds lift and structure.

The step that matters

Cooking the chocolate custard. The egg yolk proteins set as they heat. Heating too quickly or too long can curdle the mixture into grainy lumps, so cook gently, stirring steadily, only until it thickens.

“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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