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Dessert

Plain Sponge Cake

A light, airy cake made from eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, water, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Plain Sponge Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with the powdered sugar until well combined.

  2. Gradually stir in 1 cup of sifted flour.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  4. Fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture gently.

  5. Sift the remaining flour with the baking powder and fold it into the batter.

  6. Slowly stir in the boiling water a little at a time.

  7. Add salt and do not add more flour, even if the mixture seems thin.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into shallow baking tins.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites give the cake its airy structure, and the yolks add richness and color.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the sponge its set structure once baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the batter rise and become light.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and dissolves easily into the yolks for a smooth mix.
Boiling water
Adds moisture and helps the batter stay loose and tender during baking.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the yolk mixture gently. Whipped egg whites hold air that makes the sponge light. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the cake bakes up dense and flat.

“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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