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Dessert

Coffee Cake

A moist cake made with coffee, molasses, sugar, butter, flour, raisins, spices, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Coffee Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°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 300°F (150°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix coffee, molasses, sugar, and butter or lard until well combined.

  2. Gradually add flour, raisins, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda dissolved in warm water, then stir until the batter is smooth.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. Optionally, add nuts or fruit to the batter before baking.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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.
Butter or lard
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer mouthfeel.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the cake brown during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and coffee to lift the batter as it bakes.
Raisins
Add chewy pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in warm water. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the acidic molasses and coffee. Clumps can leave bitter, soapy pockets and uneven rising.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, molasses, sugar, butter, flour, raisin, cinnamon. 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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