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Dessert

Eggless Coffee Cake

A moist, spiced cake made with molasses, coffee, and dried fruits, baked without eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Eggless 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 the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix molasses and cold strong coffee.

  3. Add citron, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda dissolved in coffee, and salt.

  4. Incorporate butter, raisins, currants, nuts, dates, figs, and gum drops.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

Bake and mature

  1. Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Let the cake mature for 3 weeks before serving.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dense fruit and nut batter together.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to help the cake rise and darken.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps browning.
Raisins
Add moisture and chewy sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the coffee. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved and evenly mixed so it reacts with the acidic molasses throughout the batter. Unevenly distributed soda can leave bitter pockets or patchy rising.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, coffee, sugar, flour, cinnamon, butter, raisin. 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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