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Louise Read's Coffee Crunch Cake

This recipe pairs a nutty meringue with coffee-flavoured Victoria sponge. No wonder it made it into the top three in our 20th birthday cake competition

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Coffee and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 289 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 8
Prep40 min
Cook40 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease two 20cm (8 inch) sandwich tins with butter and line their bases with baking paper.

  2. Cream the 175g butter with the 175g caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the 3 eggs one at a time, then fold in the self-raising flour and baking powder. Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake for 20 minutes until springy and golden.

  3. Divide the coffee granules in two. Whisk the 2 egg whites until stiff, then gradually whisk in the 100g caster sugar until glossy. Fold in half the coffee granules and the chopped walnuts.

  4. Cool both sponges on a rack. Spread the meringue mixture over the top of one sponge and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15 minutes until crisp and set on top. Cool completely.

  5. Dissolve the remaining coffee granules in a splash of boiling water and let cool slightly. Beat the 100g softened butter with the 50g sifted icing sugar until light, then beat in the coffee liquid.

  6. Spread the coffee buttercream over the plain sponge, then place the meringue-topped sponge on top so the crunchy layer is uppermost.

  7. Dust the top with the 3 tbsp icing sugar just before serving.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Coffee + walnuttop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together289 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + walnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,819 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + eggtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together118,511 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Egg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together104,138 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the walnut

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

  1. Almondbetter flavor fit
  2. Cocoaabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Pecansabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, coffee. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).