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Dessert

Coffee Cake, No. 2

A moist coffee cake with raisins, molasses, and spices baked into two loaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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, No. 2

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and line a cake tin with paper.

  2. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and spices.

  3. Dredge the raisins with some of the flour.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and molasses, then alternate adding the coffee and flour mixture.

  3. Finally, fold in the whipped egg whites.

Bake

  1. Divide the batter into 2 loaves and bake for 50 minutes.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

Eggs
Whipped whites add lift and airy structure, while yolks add richness and binding to the batter.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds fat for a tender, rich crumb.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep caramel flavour.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour, and a rich, slightly bitter sweetness.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to make the cake rise.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whipped whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Stirring vigorously or overmixing after they are added knocks that air out, leaving a dense cake.

Swap the clove

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

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

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