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Dessert

Coffee Cake

A moist cake made with butter, brown sugar, molasses, coffee, spices, raisins, currants, citron, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until smooth.

  3. Mix in molasses and cold coffee.

  4. Dissolve 1 teaspoon of baking soda in the molasses and add to the mixture.

  5. Add grated nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, raisins, currants, and citron.

  6. Gradually add flour until you achieve a stiff batter.

Bake

  1. Pour batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb when creamed with sugar.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and deep sweetness to the cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lift and lighten the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter as it bakes.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the molasses. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the acidic molasses; undissolved pockets can leave bitter spots and uneven rise.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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