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Dessert

Excellent Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake made with egg whites, sugar, butter, flour, baking powder, vanilla, and melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Excellent Chocolate 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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg whites in a bowl until stiff.

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together in another bowl.

  3. Add the egg yolks and vanilla to the butter mixture.

  4. Combine the flour and baking powder, then add to the mixture.

  5. Divide the batter in half; mix half with melted chocolate.

Bake

  1. Pour the chocolate batter into the center of a greased cake pan.

  2. Pour the remaining batter around the chocolate batter.

  3. Bake in three layers until a toothpick comes out clean.

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add structure and lift to the cake.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it heats, helping the cake rise.
Melted chocolate
Flavors and colors half the batter to make the chocolate layer.

The step that matters

Bake in three layers until a toothpick comes out clean.. A toothpick that comes out clean shows the centre has set. Overbaking dries out the crumb, while underbaking leaves the middle wet 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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