Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Coffee 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 batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, sugar, flour, and baking powder.
Add hot water and coffee extract to the mixture and combine well.
In another bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the batter.
Pour the batter into a round, deep cake tin and bake until done.
Fill and frost
Once baked, cut a circular piece from the top and set it aside.
Carefully dig out small pieces from the top of the cake.
Fill the hollow with sweetened whipped cream.
Replace the top piece of the cake and frost with boiled frosting.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Whipped whites give the cake its light, airy structure, while yolks add richness.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become tender.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.
- Sweetened whipped cream
- Adds moisture and creamy richness to the hollowed centre.
The step that matters
Folding the whipped egg whites into the batter. Stiff whites hold the air that lifts the cake. Overmixing or stirring vigorously knocks that air out, leaving a dense, flat cake.
“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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