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Chocolate Cake

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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 Cake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine ½ cup milk, 8 tablespoons grated chocolate, and 5 tablespoons granulated sugar. Cook until thickened, then cool.

  2. In a mixing bowl, cream together 1½ cups brown sugar and ½ cup butter.

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

  4. Stir in ½ cup flour and 2 teaspoons baking powder until combined.

  5. Add the cooled custard, ½ cup milk, 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Mix well.

  6. If desired, fold in 1 cup chopped nuts.

  7. For the frosting, boil 2 cups granulated sugar and 1 cup cream for about 8 minutes.

  8. Spread the frosting on the cake and top with melted chocolate.

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. 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + nutstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together638 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

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

Swap the nuts

The recipe marks nuts as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, chocolate, sugar, butter, egg, flour, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, chocolate, sugar, butter, egg, flour, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More chocolate cake recipes

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