Skip to main content
Dessert

White Sponge Cake

A lemon sponge cake made with sugar, flour, cream of tartar, egg whites, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tea and lemon work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 610 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

White Sponge Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg whites until light.

  2. Add sugar and beat well.

  3. Add lemon juice.

  4. Mix cream of tartar with the flour and stir the flour in lightly.

Bake

  1. Bake about an hour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

567Calories
14 gProtein
7 gFat
112 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
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 Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo. 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. Tea + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together610 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Flour
Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that helps beaten egg whites hold their volume.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon flavour.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour lightly. Beaten egg whites hold the cake's air. Heavy or overworked stirring deflates the foam, so the flour should be folded in gently to keep the sponge light.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, tea, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, tea, cream. 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.

More lemon sponge cake recipes

Pudding 5 See all 108 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes