Why it works: Corn and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,165 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cream Sponge Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat yolks of eggs until thick and lemon-colored, add sugar gradually, and beat two minutes; then add water.
Put corn-starch in a cup and fill cup with flour.
Mix and sift corn-starch and flour with baking powder and salt, and add to first mixture.
When thoroughly mixed add whites of eggs beaten until stiff, and flavoring.
Bake
Bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour 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
- Yolks whip up to thicken the batter, and beaten whites add lightness and structure.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake once it sets in the oven.
- Corn-starch
- Softens the crumb and makes the cake more tender than flour alone.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes airy.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps stabilise the whipped yolks.
The step that matters
Add the stiffly beaten whites gently. Whites hold air that gives the sponge its rise. Folding them in gently after the flour mixture keeps that air, while vigorous stirring deflates the batter and leaves a dense cake.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, corn, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Blueberryfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, corn, flour. 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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