Meaning & use
Spanish coffee cake
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A sweet baked cake flavored with coffee, often with a nut or cinnamon topping, associated with Spanish-style baking.
Grammar: Countable: use a/an or a plural — a Spanish coffee cake, two Spanish coffee cakes.
Patterns
- a slice of Spanish coffee cake
- make/bake a Spanish coffee cake
She brought a warm Spanish coffee cake to the office party.
The bakery sells Spanish coffee cakes topped with toasted almonds.
We had a slice of Spanish coffee cake with our afternoon tea.
Word forms
| plural | Spanish coffee cakes |
|---|
Common combinations
- a slice of Spanish coffee cake
- He saved me a slice of Spanish coffee cake for later.
- bake a Spanish coffee cake
- They bake a Spanish coffee cake every Sunday morning.
- topped with nuts
- The Spanish coffee cake was topped with nuts and cinnamon.
- serve with coffee
- Serve the Spanish coffee cake with coffee after dinner.
Synonyms and how they differ
- coffee cake
- The general American term for this kind of cake; the Spanish version simply adds a specific regional style.
- crumb cake
- Similar in texture but usually topped with crumbs rather than coffee flavoring.
Word family
- coffee cake noun
- A general cake often eaten with coffee.
Commonly confused: Spanish coffee cake or coffee cake?
Spanish coffee cake vs coffee cake
In British English a 'coffee cake' can mean a cake flavored with coffee, while in American English it often means a cake eaten with coffee; the Spanish version usually means the flavored kind.
Practice
Which sentence uses the noun correctly?
Choose one answer.
'A Spanish coffee cake' is correct because the noun is countable and singular after 'a'. Option 2 wrongly mixes 'a' with a plural, and options 3 and 4 are ungrammatical in this context.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “Spanish coffee cake”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.