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Dessert

Coffee Cake

A moist cake made with molasses, brown sugar, lard, coffee, raisins, currants, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin 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

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, brown sugar, and lard until well combined.

  2. Add the egg and mix until fully incorporated.

  3. Gradually add the flour, mixing until smooth.

  4. Stir in the boiling coffee, raisins, and currants.

  5. Finally, add the baking soda, cloves, and cinnamon, and mix well.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep sweetness to the batter.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown and stay soft.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lightens the cake.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda. Baking soda needs an acidic partner such as molasses to release gas and lift the cake. Mixing it in last and bearing to bake promptly keeps the batter's rise from fading before it sets in the oven.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, egg, flour, coffee, raisin, clove):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, egg, flour, coffee, raisin, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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