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Dessert

Coffee Cake

A sweet cake made from a bread sponge, raisins, and cinnamon, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Coffee Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Combine the bread sponge, beaten egg, milk, sugar, salt, butter or lard, raisins, and enough flour to make a stiff batter in a bowl.

  2. Beat the mixture well with a spoon; do not use your hands.

Rise and bake

  1. Let the batter rise until light, then transfer it to pans and let it rise again.

  2. Brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread sponge
Provides the yeast-leavened starter that makes the batter rise and gives a light crumb.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Butter or lard
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer mouthfeel in the crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the stiff batter's structure once set by baking.

The step that matters

Beating the batter well with a spoon. Vigorous beating develops gluten, giving the batter the strength to hold the rise and a fine, even crumb. Using hands adds warmth and uneven handling, so a spoon is specified.

“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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