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Dessert

Coffee Cake

A sweet loaf made with butter, brown sugar, coffee, flour, eggs, spices, raisins, citron, and hickory nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Coffee Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Whip the yolks of the eggs and add to the mixture.

  3. Sift in a little flour, then add some of the cold coffee.

  4. Continue alternating adding flour and coffee until half of each is used.

  5. Sift the baking powder into the remaining flour and add it to the mixture.

  6. Dredge the fruit in flour and add it along with the nuts and spices.

  7. Beat the mixture for twenty minutes.

Bake

  1. Pour into a loaf pan and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Brown sugar
Creamed with butter to add sweetness, moisture and a caramel flavour.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter and help bind it into a structured, tender cake.
Flour
Provides the main structure as the batter sets during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture to the finished cake.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture for twenty minutes. Long beating develops the flour's structure and traps air, which affects how light and even the crumb becomes. Beating too little or too much changes the texture, so keep to the stated time and avoid overmixing once the flour and baking powder are in.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, coffee, flour, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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