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Dessert

Coffee Filling

A coffee-based filling for cakes made with coffee, cream, sugar, corn starch, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Coffee Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coffee base

  1. Make a cup of strong black coffee using Mocha and Java.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of cream and ½ cup of sugar to the coffee.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil while stirring.

  4. Blend 2 heaping teaspoons of corn-starch with a little cold coffee and stir into the boiling coffee.

Add the eggs

  1. In a bowl, beat 2 eggs.

  2. Gradually pour the hot coffee mixture over the eggs while stirring briskly.

  3. If the mixture is not thick enough, set it over boiling water and stir until it thickens slightly, but do not boil.

Assemble the cake

  1. Pour the filling over a layer of cake, adding more layers as desired.

  2. Finish the top with coffee icing.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Coffee + corntop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together247 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the filling as they set gently when heated, adding richness.
Corn-starch
Thickens the boiling coffee mixture into a smooth, spreadable filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the bitterness of the strong coffee.
Strong black coffee
Provides the main flavour and liquid base of the filling.
Cream
Adds fat for a softer, smoother texture and richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Adding the hot coffee to the eggs. Pouring hot liquid into eggs too quickly can scramble them. Adding it gradually while stirring briskly tempers the eggs so they thicken smoothly. Keep the final heating gentle, since boiling can curdle the eggs and break the custard.

“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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