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Dessert

White Sponge, or Angel Cake

A light, airy cake made from whipped egg whites, sugar, flour, vanilla, cream of tartar, and a pinch of salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

White Sponge, or Angel Cake

serves six

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sift the cream of tartar into the flour five or six times; sift the sugar twice.

Make the batter

  1. Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and whip them very stiff.

  2. Gradually beat the sugar into the whipped whites, placing it on the end of the platter and beating it in from below.

  3. Add the sifted flour in the same manner.

  4. Add the vanilla and continue beating until the mixture remains light.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a perfectly bright, ungreased pan or one lined with paper; a pan with a tube in the center is best.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven for thirty to forty minutes.

  3. Do not move or jar the cake while it is baking.

  4. Test the cake with a broom‑straw before removing it from the oven, and do not let it become too deeply colored.

  5. Let the cake stand in the pan a few minutes, then loosen it around the sides; it will fall out.

  6. Turn the cake upside down and ice the bottom and sides if desired.

  7. Do not cut the cake; break it apart with two forks.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

645Calories
20 gProtein
12 gFat
109 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Cakenot 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 Mary Ronald. 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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the cake its light, airy structure.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and stabilises the whipped egg white foam when beaten in.
Flour
Provides the light structure that holds the cake's airy crumb once baked.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the egg whites, helping them whip to a stiffer, more stable foam.

The step that matters

Bake gently and do not jar the cake. Baking too fast makes the cake tough, and jarring it while the foam is setting can collapse the delicate structure, so the cake stays low and dense.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Vanillathe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Strawberryfits less well

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