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Dessert

German Coffee Cake

A yeast-leavened cake made with milk, butter, sugar, eggs, flour, lemon rind, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Norton, Caroline Trask · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

German Coffee Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the first dough

  1. Dissolve one yeast cake in one-half cup warm water.

  2. Add the dissolved yeast to one cup scalded and cooled milk, with flour enough to make a stiff batter.

  3. Let rise.

  4. When light and bubbly, add one-third cup melted butter, one-fourth cup sugar, one-half teaspoonful salt, one egg (well beaten), grated lemon rind, and flour to make a stiff batter.

  5. Beat well.

  6. Let rise twice the bulk.

Shape and bake

  1. Spread in a dripping pan.

  2. Cover and let rise again.

  3. When risen, brush over with beaten egg.

  4. Dust with sugar and cinnamon mixed.

  5. Bake in a hot oven twenty minutes.

Make the alternative dough

  1. Make a sponge of the milk, salt and yeast that has been dissolved in half a cup of warm water.

  2. Add flour enough to make a pour batter.

  3. When it is light and full of bubbles, add the butter, sugar and well beaten eggs.

  4. Stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Knead dough twenty minutes.

  5. Let it rise to double the bulk.

  6. Then mould with the hands into oblong biscuits the shape of an egg.

  7. Place them in the baking pan near together, let rise double the bulk.

  8. When ready for the oven, brush over the top with milk and sprinkle sugar over them, if liked sweet.

  9. Bake in a hot oven about twenty minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

845Calories
28 gProtein
26 gFat
124 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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. See the original page.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Makes the dough rise and become light and airy through fermentation.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb to the dough.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the dough hold its shape and colour.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, and helps the dough brown in the oven.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise fully. Yeast needs time to ferment and build gas bubbles; under-proofed dough bakes up dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse. Judging the doubled volume and bubbly texture sets the final lightness.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, butter, egg. 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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