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Dessert

Chocolate Layer Cake

A two-layer chocolate cake with a chocolate icing between the layers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chocolate Layer 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.

  5. Gradually add the flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture, alternating between them.

  6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the batter.

Bake and assemble

  1. Divide the batter in half; bake one half in two pans for 25-30 minutes.

  2. To the remaining batter, add the grated chocolate and bake for another 25-30 minutes.

  3. Once baked, layer the light and dark cakes, spreading chocolate icing between the layers.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks give the batter lift, and the yolks add richness and structure.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake, softens the crumb and helps the crust brown.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor to the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise as they bake.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and colors the batter for the dark layers.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that makes the cake light. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from being knocked out of the batter before it bakes.

“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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