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Dessert

Chocolate Loaf Cake

A chocolate loaf cake made with chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs, milk, flour, vanilla, baking powder, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Chocolate Loaf Cake

Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 Loaf Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the chocolate in boiling water.

  2. Cream the butter, then gradually add the sugar while beating.

  3. Add the egg yolks and beat again.

  4. Stir in the milk and melted chocolate.

  5. Add the flour and mix well.

Fold and finish

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into the mixture.

  2. Add the vanilla and baking powder sifted with the flour.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Milk + vanillatop 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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air for a light, airy crumb.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the loaf rise in the oven.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavor and deep color of the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiff egg whites hold the air that lifts the cake. Stirring them vigorously or overmixing deflates the foam, leaving a dense loaf. Fold gently with a spatula, cutting through and turning the batter over until just combined.

“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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