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Dessert

Coffee Cake

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and shortening.

  3. Stir in the molasses and cold coffee until well combined.

  4. Add the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and grated nutmeg.

  5. Gradually mix in the flour and salt until the batter is smooth.

  6. Fold in the chopped raisins coated in flour.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for 30-40 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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Shortening
Creams with the sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness with mild acidity.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Baking powder
Adds additional lift so the cake rises evenly during baking.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.

The step that matters

Gradually mixing in the flour and salt. Adding flour gradually and mixing only until smooth limits gluten development, keeping the cake tender rather than tough or dense.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Allspicethe original
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, coffee, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, flour. 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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