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Dessert

Cake Without Chemicals

A simple sponge cake made with eggs, sugar, flour, and oil, baked in a moderate oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cake Without Chemicals

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Separate one egg white or yolk from the 3 eggs.

  2. Measure 1 cup sugar, 5 tablespoons oil, and ⅔ cup flour.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs and sugar together.

  2. Add the oil.

  3. Add the thin bread sponge.

  4. Fold in the flour.

  5. Pour batter into three layer cake pans.

Rise and bake

  1. Let stand for 2 or 3 hours in a not very warm place.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven.

Make the topping

  1. Beat the egg white stiffly.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 tablespoons thick cream.

  3. Alternatively, make a cream sauce of the yolk.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

582Calories
19 gProtein
6 gFat
108 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
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 Evora Bucknum Perkins. 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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
Beaten eggs trap air and add structure and lift to the sponge.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its body once baked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
Oil (in the method)
Adds fat that keeps the crumb moist and soft.
Thin bread sponge
Its fermentation produces gas that helps the batter rise.

The step that matters

Letting the batter stand. The sponge relies on slow fermentation to build gas and flavour. A place that is too warm can over-ferment and collapse the batter, while a cold place slows the rise, so the temperature needs to stay gentle during the standing time.

“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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