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Dessert

Coffee Cake

A moist cake flavored with coffee, raisins, and spices, topped with a butter‑brown sugar filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

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. Cream together the butter and brown sugar.

  3. Add the egg and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with cold coffee.

  6. Fold in the raisins.

  7. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine milk and cornstarch in a saucepan, then add butter and brown sugar.

  2. Cook over medium heat until thick, then pour over the batter.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30-35 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. 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. Raisin + cinnamontop 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. Raisin + clovetop 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to give the batter richness and a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and deepens the flavor through its molasses content.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and stays light.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling so it sets rather than running into the batter.

The step that matters

Cook the filling until thick. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the mixture reaches a boil and is stirred over heat. If it is undercooked, the filling stays runny and soaks into the batter instead of setting on top.

Swap the clove

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

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

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