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Dessert

Sponge Cake with Hot Water

A sponge cake made with sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, cream of tartar, and hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Sponge Cake with Hot Water

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. Beat sugar and eggs together.

  2. Sift baking powder into flour.

  3. Beat all together.

  4. Stir in the boiling water.

  5. Bake quickly.

Make the syrup and whites

  1. Boil sugar as for frosting.

  2. Beat whites of eggs stiff in a bowl.

  3. Pour the syrup over the beaten whites, beating until cold.

  4. Add the beaten yolks.

Finish and bake

  1. Add 1 teaspoon cream of tartar to flour and sift five times.

  2. Beat all together.

  3. Pour into an unbuttered tin.

  4. Bake slowly for 50 or 60 minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

633Calories
20 gProtein
12 gFat
109 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
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 Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog]. 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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. 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
Whites trap air and yolks add richness, giving the cake its main structure and lift.
Flour
Its proteins set during baking, forming the cake's crumb and holding its shape.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, boiled into syrup, helps stabilise the beaten whites.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the batter rise and become light.
Cream of tartar
An acid that helps beaten egg whites hold their foam and stay stable.

The step that matters

Pouring the syrup over the beaten whites. The syrup must be hot enough to cook and set the whites while you keep beating, otherwise the foam can collapse or stay loose and weak. Beating until cold keeps air trapped so the cake rises.

“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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