Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with a chocolate filling made from sugar and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate base

  1. Combine ¾ cup Baker's chocolate, 3 egg yolks, 1½ cups brown sugar, and 1 cup milk in a double boiler, then cook until creamy and let cool.

Make the batter

  1. Mix 4 eggs, 2 cups brown sugar, 1 cup butter, and 1 cup milk in a separate bowl. Dissolve 1 teaspoon baking soda in the milk and add to the mixture.

  2. Gradually add 4 cups flour and vanilla extract to the batter.

Make the syrup

  1. Boil 1¼ pounds sugar and ¾ cup water until it ropes, stirring only until dissolved.

  2. Remove from heat and stir until it becomes milky.

Finish the cake

  1. Fold in 2 beaten egg whites and ¼ pound grated chocolate until nearly cold.

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. Milk + buttertop 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake's crumb together.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter's acid and gas bubbles lift the cake as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and a deeper caramel flavor.
Chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavor and richness in the cake.

The step that matters

Boil the sugar and water until it ropes. Sugar syrup cooked to the ropes stage has a set concentration. Undercooking leaves it too wet, while overcooking makes it hard and grainy, which changes the cake's texture.

“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.

More chocolate cake recipes

Filling 18French 14Marbled 13Black 11Dark 10Marble 7 See all 565 →

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes