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Dessert

Devil Food Cake

A chocolate cake made with shortening, baking soda, sugar, sour milk, eggs, chocolate, flour, vanilla, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Devil Food 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream the shortening until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the sugar and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk.

  5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.

  6. Melt the chocolate and blend it into the mixture.

  7. Gradually add the flour and sour milk mixture alternately, starting and ending with flour.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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. 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. 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

Shortening
Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, binding the batter as the cake sets.
Flour
Forms the cake's main structure once heated and set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
Chocolate
Adds deep flavor and color to the cake.

The step that matters

Alternating flour and sour milk mixture. Adding the flour and liquid in alternating portions, starting and ending with flour, keeps the batter smooth and prevents overmixing. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make the cake tough.

“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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