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Dessert

Sponge Cake

A light cake made from eggs, sugar, flour, lemon, baking powder, milk, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Landmarks Club · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Sponge Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg whites until very stiff.

  2. Beat the yolks until light, add sugar gradually and beat thoroughly.

  3. Add the beaten whites and mix, but do not stir.

  4. Add the lemon extract and mix.

  5. Add the flour gradually and mix.

Bake the first cake

  1. Bake for thirty or thirty-five minutes in a well-greased baking pan.

Make the sugar and egg custard

  1. Put the sugar and water in a pot and bring to a boil.

  2. Beat the eggs separately and then together.

  3. Pour the boiling sugar into the eggs and stir slowly until the mixture is cold.

  4. When the mixture is cool, add the flour with as little stirring as possible.

Finish and bake

  1. Flavor with lemon and bake slowly for an hour.

  2. Beat the yolks and one egg white together.

  3. Add the sugar, water, flour, and baking powder.

  4. Add the whites of the remaining eggs.

  5. Flavor with one tablespoonful of lemon juice.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

755Calories
28 gProtein
15 gFat
124 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Landmarks Club. 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. 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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Beaten whites trap air and set during baking, giving the cake its structure.
Flour
Starch and proteins set as the cake bakes, forming the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter as it bakes.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright citrus flavour.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten whites. Beaten egg whites hold the air that makes the cake rise. Stirring or overmixing them knocks that air out, so the cake comes out denser and flatter.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, milk, egg, vanilla):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, milk, egg, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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