Why it works: Milk and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cakes
Bake two sponge cakes and let them cool.
Make the coffee custard
In a saucepan, combine milk, egg, sugar, and flour.
Boil the mixture until it thickens.
Flavor the mixture with strong coffee.
Assemble
Spread the mixture between the cooled cakes and frost the top.
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.
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Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Egg
- Helps thicken the filling as it cooks and adds richness to the custard.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture into a spreadable filling that holds its shape.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the filling and gives it a creamy texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture until it thickens. Flour starch only thickens fully when the liquid reaches a boil and the starch granules swell. Stopping early leaves a runny filling, while overcooking can scorch the milk and egg.
“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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