Interesting Food Facts about Coffee Cake

1. Coffee cake was not invented, rather it evolved from a variety of different types of cakes.
2. Cakes in their various forms have been around since biblical times, the simplest varieties made from honey or dates and other fruits.
3. The Danish came up with the earliest versions of coffee cake.  Around the 17th century in Europe, it became the custom to enjoy a delicious sweet and yeasty type of bread when drinking coffee beverages.
4. There are many available combinations, everything from blueberry coffee cakes to cinnamon walnut coffee cake and more.
5. The hole in the center of most coffee cakes is a relatively recent innovation—it became popular in the 1950’s.  This “bundt pan” was invented to allowed heavier batters to get cooked all the way through without any dough left unbaked in the center.

Fun Fact:

The first coffee cakes are thought to have originated in Germany. These were more like sweet breads than cakes.

According to the book Listening to America, Stuart Berg Flexner, it wasn’t until 1879 that the term “coffee cake” became a common term.

In Hungary, a type of coffee cake is aranygaluska, which utilizes cinnamon.

Today’s Food History

• 1727 Michel Adanson was born. Adanson was a French botanist who developed a system of plant classification based on physical characteristics. His system was opposed by Carolus Linnaeus, and was not widely used.
• 1857 A cold front barrels over the U.S. and snow falls in every state in the country.
• 1860 Will Kieth Kellogg was born. Founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co. (later the W.K. Kellogg Company) to manufacture cereals (cornflakes were the first) developed by his brother John Harvey Kellogg.
• 1869 David Grandison Fairchild was born. An American botanist and agriculturalist, he was responsible for introducing many useful plants to the U.S. Author of ‘The World Was My Garden,’ and ‘Exploring for Plants’.
• 1933 The beginning of the end of Prohibition. On this day 3.2 percent beer sales were allowed in advance of Prohibition’s ratification.
• 1943 Mick Abrahams of the music group ‘Jethro Tull’ was born.
• 1948 The World Health Organization (WHO) was established.
• 1967 ‘Happy Together’ by Turtles is #1 on the charts.