Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Chocolate 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.
Make the batter
Add the egg yolks, milk, flour, baking powder, and melted chocolate, then mix well.
Fold in the stiffly beaten egg white and then the chopped nuts.
Pour the batter into a greased loaf or layer cake pan.
Bake
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Chocolate + nutstop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together440 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Flour + nutstop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,180 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter, it sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy texture.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, making the cake rise and become light.
- Egg
- Adds structure, moisture, and richness, and the whipped white adds lift.
- Chocolate
- Gives the cake its chocolate flavor and adds richness and moisture.
The step that matters
Folding in the stiffly beaten egg white. Stirring vigorously or overmixing deflates the whipped egg white, removing the air bubbles that help the cake rise. Gentle folding keeps the batter light and airy.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter, chocolate, egg, milk):
- Almondfits better
- Hazelnutfits better
- Pecansfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, chocolate, egg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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