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 Drop Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the batter
Combine three eggs, one cup sugar, one cup flour, one tablespoon water, one small teaspoon baking powder, and vanilla.
Beat yolks until very light, add sugar, beat light and creamy, add water.
Sift flour and baking powder two times.
Beat the whites of eggs to stiff froth, add a little flour lightly, then a little of the whites, fold in lightly, and add the rest of the flour and egg until all is used.
Shape and bake
Drop teaspoonful on tins one inch apart.
Bake in moderate oven.
Ice with boiled icing.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg 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 trapped as stiff foam give the cake its light, airy structure.
- Flour
- Flour sets during baking and gives the cake its structure.
- Sugar
- Sugar sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb tender.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake to rise.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold air that makes the cake light. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from collapsing and the batter from deflating.
“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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