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Pralines, Coffee and Cream Cake

"This is a great cake for parties, gatherings, etc. I always get numerous requests for the recipe. Easy to make!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Coffee and cream cheese work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and 100 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl pentanoate, which smells yeast, fruit. The science ↓

The recipe

1 - 9x13 inch cake
Prep30 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

  2. In a large bowl, beat the dry white cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil and coffee flavored liqueur on medium speed for 2 minutes until smooth. Pour into the pan.

  3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack.

  4. While the cake bakes, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar and about half of the milk, then bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes, stirring.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped pecans. Spoon the warm praline over the cooled cake and spread it evenly. Let it set for 20 minutes.

  6. Whisk the instant vanilla pudding mix with the remaining milk for 2 minutes until thickened. Let stand 5 minutes.

  7. Beat the cream cheese until soft, then beat in the pudding. Fold in the thawed whipped topping until smooth.

  8. Spread the cream mixture over the praline layer. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before cutting.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Coffee + cream cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

  2. Vanilla + milktop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cream cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, coffee, butter, sugar, vanilla, milk, cream cheese):

  1. Pecansthe original
  2. Cocoaabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, coffee, butter, sugar, vanilla, milk, cream cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).