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Sponge Cake Meringue

A sponge cake layered with orange custard and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Sponge Cake Meringue

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Butter a pudding dish well and cover the bottom with slices of stale sponge cake about an inch thick, fitting them closely together.

  2. Beat the yolks of three eggs with three teaspoonfuls of granulated sugar.

  3. Add the grated rind of half an orange, the juice of one orange, and the juice of half a small lemon.

  4. Add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter.

  5. Stir soda as large as a pea into a cup and a half of milk, then add this to the orange and egg mixture and stir well together.

Bake the pudding

  1. Pour three-quarters of the mixture over the cake.

  2. Set the dish in a pan of boiling water in the oven.

  3. When the cake has absorbed the custard and no longer floats, add the remainder of the custard.

Make the meringue and finish

  1. While the pudding is baking, make a meringue of three egg whites beaten to a stiff froth and three-quarters of a cup of granulated sugar.

  2. Flavor the meringue with the grated rind of half an orange and a few drops of orange extract.

  3. Spread the meringue quickly over the pudding and bake for fifteen minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

291Calories
8 gProtein
17 gFat
28 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Butter + orangetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,301 recipes

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

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
Yolks thicken the custard while whites whip into the meringue for lightness.
Sponge cake (in the method)
Absorbs the custard and forms the soft, spongy body of the pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and meringue and helps stabilize the whipped whites.
Orange
Provides juice and rind for citrus aroma and acidity.
Milk (in the method)
Forms the liquid base that soaks into the cake and sets with the eggs.

The step that matters

Spread the meringue quickly over the pudding. Whipped egg whites deflate as they stand, so the meringue should be spread and put into the oven promptly. Baking it soon after spreading sets the foam while it is still airy.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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