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Dessert

Lemon Sponge Cake

A lemon sponge cake made with molasses, ginger, butter, sour milk, soda, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lemon Sponge Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Separate the eggs.

  2. Butter your pan well.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks, sugar, and lemon juice and zest until thick and light.

  2. Whisk the whites until dry. Add them with the flour, half of each at a time.

  3. Mix all together, but avoid beating.

  4. In a bowl, combine two cups molasses, sift two teaspoons soda and a dessert spoon ginger. Stir to a cream.

  5. Add four well beaten eggs, one cup melted butter, one cup sour milk with one teaspoon soda dissolved. Mix all together.

  6. Add flour to achieve the consistency of a pound cake.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F.

  2. Bake two loaves.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

903Calories
28 gProtein
26 gFat
139 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12

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

By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.). 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and structure to the crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the sponge together as it sets in the oven.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep sweetness to the cake.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich, soft texture.
Sour milk with soda
Acid reacts with soda to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks whip to a thick, light texture.

The step that matters

Mix all together, but avoid beating.. Once flour is in, overbeating develops gluten and toughens the cake. Gentle folding keeps the air from the whites and the crumb tender.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, molasses, butter, milk, egg. 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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