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Dessert

Golden Sponge Cake

A sponge cake made from eggs, sugar, flour, and salt, baked in tins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Golden Sponge Cake

two loaves

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine twelve eggs, one pound of sugar, twelve ounces of flour, and a pinch of salt.

  2. Beat the whites to a very stiff froth.

  3. Beat the yolks until the bubbles look fine.

  4. When the yolks are beaten enough, add the sugar and beat until sugar is dissolved.

  5. Add the whites and then the flour.

Line and bake

  1. Bake immediately in brick-shaped tins.

  2. This will make two loaves.

  3. The cake is much nicer if baked in a paste.

  4. Make the paste with flour and water only.

  5. Roll out the paste on the board the same as pie crust.

  6. Line your greased tins all over inside with the paste and pour in the batter.

  7. Bake nearly an hour.

  8. Do not break off the paste until ready to use.

  9. The cake will be more moist and keep longer.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

582Calories
19 gProtein
6 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Whipped whites trap air, giving the cake its rise and light, airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and dissolves into the yolks to give a fine, tender crumb.
Flour
Provides starch and gluten that set the cake's structure as it bakes.

The step that matters

Add the whites and then the flour.. The whites are full of trapped air that makes the cake rise. Folding them in gently, rather than beating hard, keeps that air in the batter, and the flour should be added gently too so the cake stays light.

“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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