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Dessert

Coffee Cake

A sweet, spiced cake with raisins, currants, and citron, flavored with coffee and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Coffee Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

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

  3. Stir in the molasses and strong coffee.

  4. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cloves, and cinnamon.

  5. Dissolve the vinegar in the mixture and add it to the wet ingredients.

  6. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.

  7. Fold in the raisins, currants, and citron.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven 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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Coffee + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together895 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic vinegar and molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown and stay tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and deep flavor, and contributes acidity.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that activates the baking soda for rising.

The step that matters

Dissolve the vinegar in the mixture and add it to the wet ingredients. Vinegar must be combined so the acid reacts with the baking soda while the batter is still mixing. Adding it unevenly can leave pockets of soda that taste bitter or rise unevenly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, molasses, coffee, flour, vinegar, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, molasses, coffee, flour, vinegar, cinnamon. 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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