Name: Plum Streusel Coffeecake
Ingredients: For streusel:; 1/2 cup all-purpose flour; 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar; 1/2 cup hazelnuts; 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) soymarg; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg; For cake batter:; 1 stick (1/2 cup) soymarg, softened; 3/4 cup granulated sugar; egg replacer = 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 6 plums, peeled and sliced

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,287 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Hazelnut + vanillatop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together279 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Vanilla + plumtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together171 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Cinnamon + plumtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together513 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake and streusel together as it bakes.
Soymarg: Adds fat for tenderness and richness in both the streusel and the cake batter.
Egg replacer: Binds the batter and helps give the cake its structure and moisture.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the oven so the cake rises and turns light.
Granulated sugar: Sweetens the batter and helps it become light and fluffy when creamed with the fat.
Plums: Add juicy fruit moisture and tartness that contrasts with the sweet cake.

The step that matters

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Creaming fat with sugar traps air bubbles that help the cake rise and give it an even, tender crumb. Under-beating leaves a dense cake.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, hazelnut, cinnamon, nutmeg, egg, vanilla):

Blueberryfits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, hazelnut, cinnamon, nutmeg, egg, vanilla. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Hazelnut	not in our table	0
Cake	not in our table	0

Plum Streusel Coffeecake