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Dessert

German Coffee Cake

A yeasted cake with butter, sugar, cinnamon, almonds, and optional fruit, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

German Coffee Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water and let it soak for a few minutes.

  2. In a large bowl, combine warm milk and enough flour to make a sponge; let it rise.

Make the dough

  1. Add butter or lard, sugar, and beaten eggs to the sponge.

  2. Mix in enough flour to form a soft dough.

  3. Let the dough rise again.

Shape, top and bake

  1. Spread the dough about 1 inch thick in square low tins.

  2. Spread melted butter on top of the dough.

  3. Sprinkle the dough with sugar, cinnamon, and chopped almonds.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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 + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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

Yeast
Ferments the sponge so the dough rises and becomes light.
Flour
Forms the gluten structure that traps gas and holds the dough together.
Butter or lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich texture.
Eggs
Add structure and richness and help bind the dough.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning in the oven.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise again. The second rise lets the yeast build gas and expand the gluten network before baking. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse and lose its structure.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

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