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Dessert

Chocolate and Vanilla Cake

A layered cake with chocolate and vanilla batter, frosted with egg white-based frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 and Vanilla 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 the vanilla layers

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

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

  3. Add the milk, corn starch, flour, baking powder, and vanilla extract. Mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy and fold them into the batter.

  5. Divide the batter into 2 or 3 layers and bake until done.

Make the chocolate layers

  1. For the chocolate cake, cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Add the milk, flour, baking powder, and egg yolks. Mix well.

  3. Bake in round pie tins in 5 layers.

Make the frostings and assemble

  1. For the frosting, beat the egg whites until you can turn the plate upside down. Gradually add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.

  2. For the chocolate frosting, beat the egg whites until light, then add powdered sugar and 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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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
Beaten whites fold in air, giving the vanilla layers a light, airy crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds tenderness and richness to the cake.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the layers rise.
Egg yolks
Add richness and moisture to the chocolate layers.
Chocolate
Gives the chocolate layers and frosting their flavor and color.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites. Whites must be beaten to the right stiffness and folded in gently. Under-beaten whites give a dense cake, while over-beaten whites turn dry and collapse, so the batter loses its lift.

“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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