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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with butter, flour, sugar, eggs, boiling water, vanilla, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  3. Gradually add the sugar, then the beaten egg yolks, and beat again.

  4. Stir in the boiling water with the melted chocolate.

  5. Add the flour and mix well.

Finish and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the batter.

  2. Add the vanilla and baking powder, then pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  3. Bake for 45 minutes.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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).

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
Yolks enrich the batter and whites, beaten stiff, give the cake lift and a light crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and tenderness.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender texture when creamed with butter.
Chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavour and adds moisture when melted into the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes lighter.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold air that makes the cake light. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the batter and leaves a dense cake.

“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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