Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. 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.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the strong coffee and mix well.
Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Stir in the raisins and mixed spices.
Combine the baking powder with the flour and add it gradually to the mixture until a smooth batter forms.
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 30‑40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give a tender, rich crumb.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and turns light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy creamed base.
- Raisins
- Add chewy pockets of sweetness throughout the crumb.
The step that matters
Adding the flour and baking powder. Mixing flour too vigorously once it is added develops gluten, which can make the cake tough. Adding it gradually and stopping once the batter is smooth keeps the crumb tender.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, coffee, egg, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, coffee, egg, milk, flour. 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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