Name: Coffee Cake
Ingredients: 2 eggs; 5 tablespoons sugar; ½ cup milk; 3 cups flour; 1 tablespoon butter; 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder; Apples, peaches, or apricots (optional); Sugar and cinnamon (for topping)

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sugar and milk.
Add the flour and baking powder, and mix until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.

Top and bake

If desired, cover the top with sliced apples, peaches, or apricots.
Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over the top, then dot with butter.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.

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.

Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the cake as the batter sets.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps the top brown in the oven.

Swap the apple

The recipe marks apple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, flour, butter, cinnamon):

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Applethe original

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