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Dessert

Chocolate Cake or Devils' Food

A chocolate cake made with butter, sugar, melted chocolate, eggs, vanilla, milk, baking powder, and pastry flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 or Devils' Food

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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Add the sugar and melted chocolate, then mix in the eggs and vanilla until smooth.

  3. Sift the baking powder with ½ cup of the flour and add it to the mixture.

  4. Alternate adding the milk and the remaining flour until the batter is stiff enough to drop from a spoon.

  5. Beat the mixture until very smooth.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour into a loaf pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  2. Top with white icing.

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. Vanilla + milktop 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. 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

Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.
Baker's chocolate
Gives the cake its chocolate flavour and dark colour.
Eggs
Provide structure and richness, setting as the cake bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to the right consistency.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Pastry flour
Forms the cake's structure, with a fine, tender crumb from its low protein.

The step that matters

Alternate adding the milk and the flour. Adding flour and milk in portions keeps the batter smooth and well emulsified. Too much liquid at once can make it curdle or become lumpy, and the batter should be stiff enough to drop from a spoon before baking.

“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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