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Dessert

Lemon Sponge Cake Pudding

A lemon-flavored sponge cake pudding topped with a whipped egg white frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Sponge Cake Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the lemon filling

  1. Combine sugar, butter, lemon juice and zest, and water in a saucepan.

  2. Cook until thickened.

Assemble the pudding

  1. Slice sponge cake.

  2. Place sliced cake in a pan.

  3. Pour the lemon mixture over the cake.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form.

  2. Gradually add sugar, continuing to beat until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread the beaten egg whites over the top of the pudding.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

  5. Let cool before serving.

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.

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 + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 foam that sets into a light, airy meringue topping when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender, smooth texture to the lemon filling.
Lemons
Provide the juice and zest that give the filling its sharp, fragrant acidity.
White sugar
Sweetens the filling and, when whipped into egg whites, stabilises the meringue.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites must be whipped until stiff and glossy with sugar added gradually, so the foam holds its shape and bakes into a stable, airy meringue rather than weeping or collapsing.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

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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