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 ↓
Sponge Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, combine the sugar and egg yolks.
Add the flour and baking powder to the mixture.
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Make the batter
Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.
Add the hot water and mix until smooth.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
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.
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's shape as it sets in the oven.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Stirring instead of folding knocks out the air beaten into the whites, leaving a dense cake that does not rise well. Fold gently, cutting through the batter, until no white streaks remain.
“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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