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Dessert

White Sponge Cake

A light white sponge cake flavored with rose extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

White Sponge Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the powdered sugar, flour, cornstarch, and baking powder into a bowl.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gently fold the egg whites and rose extract into the dry ingredients until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into square tins about 2 inches deep.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

  3. Cut into small squares to serve.

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,584 recipes

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

  5. Flour + rosetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,643 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

Egg whites
Whipped into stiff peaks to trap air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten that set the cake's structure as it bakes.
Cornstarch
Lightens the crumb and gives a tender texture compared with flour alone.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and stay airy.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake and adds fine texture to the batter.

The step that matters

Gently fold the egg whites and rose extract into the dry ingredients. Folding preserves the air whipped into the egg whites. Stirring or beating vigorously would deflate the foam, leading to a dense, flat sponge.

“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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