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Dessert

Coffee Cake

A moist cake flavored with coffee, molasses, spices, raisins, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream the softened butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Add the egg, spices, molasses, and strong coffee. Mix well.

  3. Gradually add the flour and baking soda. Mix until combined.

  4. Dredge the raisins or dried currants in a little flour.

  5. Fold them into the batter along with the citron.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for 1 hour.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Coffee + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together895 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as the batter sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and coffee to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness through fat that coats the flour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown and stay soft.
Orleans molasses
Adds deep flavour, moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda with the flour. Baking soda needs an acid, here the molasses and coffee, to release gas and lift the batter. Mixing it in evenly keeps the rise consistent, so the cake does not turn out dense in some spots and collapsed in others.

Swap the clove

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

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

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