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 Rolls
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until well combined.
Sift in the flour and baking powder, and mix until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased 6x10 inch baking tin.
Bake and fill
Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool, then fill with French Cream Icings or jelly.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Whisked with sugar to trap air, giving the sponge its light, airy structure.
- Sugar
- Whipped with the eggs to stabilise the foam and add sweetness and browning.
- Flour
- Sets with the egg structure as it bakes, giving the cake its body.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven, helping the sponge rise and become tender.
The step that matters
Beating the eggs and sugar. Beating until well combined builds a stable foam of trapped air. If the foam collapses when flour is folded in, the sponge bakes up dense and flat instead of light and rollable.
“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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