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Dessert

Chocolate Cream Cake

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Cream 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).

  2. Beat the butter until creamy.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks until thick.

  4. Gradually add the sugar to both mixtures and combine.

  5. Stir in the melted chocolate.

  6. Alternately add the milk and sifted flour mixed with baking powder.

  7. Fold in the beaten egg whites and vanilla extract.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into two greased cake pans.

  2. Bake for about 18 minutes.

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. 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

Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb through fat that coats flour and softens the texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify the batter, helping it hold together smoothly.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the heat, making the cake rise and become light.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they trap air that lifts the batter for a lighter texture.
Chocolate
Adds flavor, color and some richness to the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when whipped well, and overmixing or deflating them while folding makes the cake dense. Fold gently, just until combined, so the trapped air keeps the cake light as 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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