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Chocolate Black Tea Cake

"This is an Austrian recipe that was passed on from one generation to the next in my family. The secret of this cake's full flavour and softness: Prepare it one day in advance before eating it!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and black tea work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and 113 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

The recipe

1 - (9 inch) Bundt cake
Prep20 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Brush a 9-inch Bundt pan with a little of the butter, then dust it with the dry bread crumbs, tapping out any extra.

  2. Beat the 1 cup butter with 1 1/3 cups of the white sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time.

  3. Whisk the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder together in a bowl.

  4. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites with the remaining 1/3 cup sugar until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 4 minutes.

  5. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three parts, alternating with the cold black tea, mixing only until combined.

  6. Fold the chopped hazelnuts into the batter, then gently fold in the beaten egg whites in two additions until no streaks remain.

  7. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  8. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack and let it cool completely before slicing.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Sugar + black teatop 19% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together113 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cocoa powder + hazelnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Egg + breadtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together22,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the hazelnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar, black tea, flour, bread, cocoa powder):

  1. Almondbetter flavor fit
  2. Cocoabetter flavor fit
  3. Peanutabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Hazelnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, black tea, flour, bread, cocoa powder. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).