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Dessert

Coffee Cake

A moist cake made with butter, sugar, molasses, raisins, coffee, baking soda, cream of tartar, flour, eggs, cloves, cinnamon, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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

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. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

  2. Cream together the butter and sugar.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolks and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in the brewed coffee.

  2. Rub the cream of tartar into the flour, then add it to the mixture along with the coffee.

  3. Stir in the molasses, raisins, cloves, cinnamon, and lemon zest.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Egg whites beaten until stiff add lift and an airy crumb to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity of molasses and cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidic ingredient that helps stabilize the egg whites and works with the baking soda to leaven.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, dark color and a rich flavor to the cake.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness, moisture and rich flavor in the crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as the batter bakes.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiff whites hold air that lifts the batter. Overmixing or deflating them while folding releases that air, leaving a denser cake.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Strawberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, coffee, cream, flour, egg. 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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