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Dessert

Chocolate Fudge Cake

A chocolate cake with a sugar syrup and marshmallow filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Chocolate Fudge 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the flour, pecans, milk, melted chocolate, egg yolks, and baking powder. Mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  5. Fold the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture.

  6. Divide the batter into two greased cake pans.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

  2. For the filling, boil 2 ½ cups sugar and 1 cup water until it forms a thread.

  3. Pour the syrup in a thin stream over the beaten egg whites, beating continuously.

  4. Add the melted marshmallows and vanilla to the mixture and beat until smooth.

  5. Once the cakes are cool, layer them with the filling.

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. Pecans + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,691 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

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

Eggs
Whites whipped to stiff peaks add lift and an airy structure to the batter.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, boiled with water, forms the syrup for the filling.
Baker's chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavor and deep color.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiled syrup into the egg whites. The syrup must be hot and poured in a thin stream while beating constantly, so it cooks the whites into a stable, glossy meringue instead of scrambling them or deflating.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, milk, chocolate, egg, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, milk, chocolate, egg, vanilla. 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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