Skip to main content
Dessert

Swiss Chocolate Cake

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Swiss Chocolate Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine shortening, salt, and vanilla in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add sugar and cream until light and fluffy.

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

  4. Blend in the melted chocolate.

  5. Sift flour and baking powder together three times.

  6. Add flour alternately with milk to the shortening mixture, beating until smooth.

Bake and frost

  1. Pour batter into two greased and floured 8‑inch layer pans.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 25 to 30 minutes.

  3. Frost with Swiss Chocolate Frosting between layers and on top and sides of the cake.

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. Vanilla + milktop 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. Vanilla + sugartop 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. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Vanilla and sugar 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
Provides fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries the creaming structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with fat, traps air that helps it rise and lighten.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
Cake flour
Low-protein flour forms a tender, fine crumb with a soft structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise and become light.
Milk
Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and richness, and deepens the cake's color.

The step that matters

Add flour alternately with milk, beating until smooth. Alternating keeps the batter emulsified and limits gluten development. Overbeating after the flour goes in can toughen the crumb, while adding all the liquid at once can make the batter curdle or set uneven.

“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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes