Coffee cakes are tasty and ubiquitous. You can find them everywhere from mom's
kitchen to upscale bakeries. But did you know that there are hundreds of years of
history behind this delectable delicacy? Here's the story behind this sweet cake.
We don't have one person to thank for coffee cake, we have generations of people. These tasty
treats evolved from other pastries over several centuries. Sweetened breads raised with yeast
are documented as far back as the 1600s when they were popular in many European countries,
including Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
Meanwhile, coffee had been introduced to Europe in the previous century. It caught on quickly,
and by the 1600s there were hundreds of coffee houses across the continent.
Traditional sweet bread, along with stimulating conversation,
became a natural pairing with coffee. It's a tradition that remains popular today.
By the mid-19th century, immigrants from these coffee- and sweet bread-loving countries
arrived in America with their traditional recipes in hand.
Though the treats they brought with them began as yeast-risen cookies, scones,
and other sweetened breads, the delectables eventually became more cake-like with a tender
crumb. Both baking powder and baking soda were introduced at this time, roughly in the 1850s,
which helped home cooks create the early version of coffee cakes that resemble what we know today.
These days you’ll often find coffee cakes that have a glaze spooned over the top,
and mix-ins can include chopped nuts, fresh fruit, or chunks of chocolate, caramel,
or other flavorings. This means that every coffee cake can be as unique as the person making it.
Given its many varieties, this beloved centuries-old baked good deserves a
spotlight for how it perfectly encapsulates baking ingenuity
and exemplifies our love of sweet noshes paired with a hot cup of coffee.
Its name might lead you to believe that coffee cake is made with, or at least tastes like,
coffee. And that had led some unfortunate snack lovers to steer clear. However,
the name "coffee cake" simply comes from the fact that these cakes are
often enjoyed alongside a cup of coffee. This is much like how the term "tea cakes"
refers to having pastries served with tea, rather than being made with tea.
That didn't stop some bakers though from taking a literal approach. At one time,
several experimental food adventurers incorporated brewed coffee into these popular cakes. Several
late 19th-century coffee cake recipes, including some in the original Fannie Farmer Cookbook,
are made with a rich butter cake foundation with a generous splash of coffee mixed inside the batter.
However, a quick survey of current, basic coffee cake recipes, including those from
Barefoot Contessa, King Arthur Baking Company, and Taste of Home, show no coffee in the ingredients.
Yet, coffee-infused cakes are still out there. Food Network's Coffee Coffee Cake,
courtesy of Trisha Yearwood, calls for fresh coffee and instant coffee powder.
Epicurious' Coffee Coffee Coffee Cake takes it one caffeinated step further with a shot
of coffee liqueur in the glaze. Coffee cake and crumb cake
Just as coffee cake evolved from other sweet breads over the centuries,
crumb cake has also evolved from its original form into its current look.
These days it resembles its coffee cake cousin. The traditional German term for this sweet treat
is streuselkuchen. Where kuchen means "cake," and streusel means "something scattered or sprinkled."
A traditional 19th-century crumb cake was yeast-risen and topped with streusel. The crumbly
mixture of cold butter blended with flour, spices, and sugar sometimes ran through the middle of the
cake as well. One variation, sometimes called New York-style has streusel only over the top,
and it can be as thick as the cake layer. If you love Entenmann's Crumb Cake, you know it well.
Since then, crumb cakes have become more coffee cake-like. The cake is more tender and leavened
with baking soda and baking powder rather than yeast, seen in recipes from Little Sweet Baker
and Sally's Baking Addiction. Little Sweet Baker shares that the main difference nowadays between
coffee cake and crumb cake comes down to the ratio of streusel to cake.
Here’s a pro-tip: Streusel lovers should opt for crumb cakes.
Chemical leaveners like baking soda and baking powder need some kind of acid to make them
activate properties for rising and tenderness in baked goods. In the late 19th century,
bakers used home-fermented raw milk and cream to get that reaction. These ingredients are sometimes
called clabber or clabber cream. And after pasteurization practices became more widely used
in the United States, commercially-made sour cream came on the scene, which provided a big help.
When bakers began using sour cream in coffee cakes, they noticed something interesting:
It not only helped the cake rise, but sour cream also made the cake moist and taste better.
"Is that a…?"
"Drake's Coffee Cake."
"Wow. Where did you get that?"
According to Martha Stewart, sour cream gives baked goods a "subtle tang," which
is especially nice in a super sweet treat like coffee cake. She also shares that the high-fat
content of sour cream will make cakes more moist and give them a delectable richness.
Here is a perfect case in point:
Ina Garten whips a generous 1-1/4 cups of sour cream into her Sour Cream Coffee Cake.
Foodimentary, the website where you can find a holiday for nearly every food, proclaims that
April 7 is National Coffee Cake Day. There's no indication why it occurs in the spring,
but who wouldn't appreciate the chance to celebrate this favorite coffee time treat?
One thing that Foodimentary does share is that coffee cakes with holes cut out
in the middle began appearing in the '50s after the original Bundt pan was
invented. This pan was modeled after the traditional shape of a Kugelhopf cake pan.
And extra bonus: That hole in the center makes it easier to get dense cakes to bake all the way
through. Furthermore, coffee cakes have the potential to be loaded with mix-ins like fruit,
nuts, and chocolate, and a Bundt pan ensures no raw pockets of batter will appear in the cake.
A baked good that's as versatile as a coffee cake definitely doesn't need to be relegated
to a single day of celebration. However, we do like having an excuse to dig out our baking pan,
mix up some buttery, cinnamon streusel, and make an irresistibly sweet and tender treat.
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