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Chocolate Cream Filling

A sweet chocolate and milk filling for cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 Cream Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Combine the sugar and milk in a saucepan.

  2. Boil for 4 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool.

  4. Add vanilla extract for flavor.

Assemble and finish

  1. Spread the mixture on the cake once it has cooled.

  2. Melt half a cake of chocolate.

  3. Spread the melted chocolate over the filling.

  4. For a white icing, omit the chocolate.

  5. If the icing is too stiff, moisten with a little hot milk.

  6. If the icing is too thin, cook a little longer.

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

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

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, 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

White sugar
Dissolves into the milk and cooks down to give the filling its sweetness and body.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the sugar dissolves into and cooks to a thick, creamy mixture.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and a rich fat-based layer when melted over the filling.

The step that matters

Boil for 4 minutes. Sugar and milk must cook long enough to thicken as they cool, but overcooking makes the mixture stiff, while undercooking leaves it thin and runny.

“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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