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Dessert

Devils Food Cake

A chocolate cake made with brown sugar, butter, sweet milk, egg yolks, baking soda, flour, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Devils Food Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

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

  2. Add the sweet milk and egg yolks and mix well.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the flour.

  4. Add the flour mixture to the batter.

Make the chocolate mixture

  1. In a saucepan, combine the chocolate, brown sugar, and sweet milk.

  2. Heat over medium until dissolved.

  3. Boil for one minute.

  4. Let the chocolate mixture cool.

Bake and finish

  1. Stir the cooled chocolate mixture into the batter.

  2. Bake in layers.

  3. Ice as desired.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter together.
Baking soda
Reacts to lift the batter so the cake rises.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich texture.
Chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavor and deep color.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps browning.

The step that matters

Let the chocolate mixture cool before stirring it into the batter. A hot chocolate mixture can melt the butter in the batter and thin it out, which affects the cake's texture. Letting it cool first keeps the batter stable and evenly mixed.

“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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