Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix together 1 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon of shortening, 1 cup of milk, 2 cups of flour, and 2 teaspoons of Rumford Baking Powder until well combined.
Divide the batter evenly between two pie pans.
Top and bake
In a separate bowl, mix ½ cup of sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon.
Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture on top of the batter in the pie pans.
Bake until golden brown.
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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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Rumford baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, lifting the batter so the cake rises and stays light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the top brown as it bakes.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
- Shortening
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a softer texture.
The step that matters
Bake until golden brown. Baking only until the top is golden keeps the cake moist; over-baking dries out the crumb. Browning comes from sugar and proteins reacting under heat, so color is a useful guide.
“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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