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Dessert

Devils' Food Cake

A chocolate cake made with buttermilk, butter, and boiling water for a moist texture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and chocolate 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 ↓

Devils' Food 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.

Prepare

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Make the batter

  1. Melt the Baker's chocolate and mix it into the batter.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.

  3. Gradually add the flour mixture to the batter, alternating with the buttermilk.

  4. Fill the cup with boiling water and stir it into the batter last.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased 2-inch square pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  2. Let cool, then ice with chocolate icing and serve in blocks.

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 + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Creamed with butter to trap air, and it adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb moist.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter.
Buttermilk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the flour mixture with the buttermilk. Alternating flour and buttermilk in small additions and mixing just until combined keeps the batter smooth. Overmixing develops too much gluten, which makes the cake tough and dense.

“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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