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Dessert

Coffee Cake

A moist cake made with butter, coffee, molasses, raisins, currants, citron, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. 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

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Add the strong coffee and molasses, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the raisins, currants, and citron.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda, spices, and flour.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture until a stiff batter forms.

  6. Fold in the eggs and grated nutmeg.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 45-50 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. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the cake richness and a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and its molasses notes deepen the cake's flavour.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a deep, slightly sharp flavour.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and coffee to help the cake rise and lighten.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Gradually adding the dry ingredients. Adding flour in stages and mixing only until combined keeps the batter smooth and prevents overmixing, which would toughen the gluten and make the cake dense.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, coffee, sugar, molasses, raisin, currant, 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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