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Dessert

German Coffee Cake

A yeast-based cake made with milk, flour, butter, cinnamon, sugar, and optional almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

German Coffee Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. In a bowl, combine lukewarm milk and the yeast cake.

  2. Add enough flour to make a stiff sponge, sifting the flour twice before using.

  3. Knead the mixture until large bubbles form.

  4. Let the batter rise overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. Knead the batter again in the morning.

  2. Fill tins with the batter until they are three-quarters full.

  3. Allow the batter to rise until it doubles in size.

  4. Glaze the top with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar or chopped almonds.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and dissolves the yeast for a soft dough.
Yeast cake
Ferments the sponge, producing gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the gluten structure that traps gas and gives the cake its crumb.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown and turn golden in the oven.

The step that matters

Let the batter rise until it doubles in size. Yeast needs enough time to produce gas for a light, open crumb. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse or lose structure in the oven.

“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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