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 ↓
Sponge Cake
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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Sift the flour, sugar, and baking powder together six or seven times.
Make the batter
In a large bowl, beat the eggs until very light.
Gradually add the sifted flour and sugar mixture, beating briskly.
Stir in the cold water and flavoring.
Pour the batter into a shallow tin and bake until golden.
Finish and roll
Spread jelly on the cake immediately after baking.
Roll the cake up.
Wrap the rolled cake in a table napkin.
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.
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Whipped until light, they trap air that lifts and gives the cake its structure.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's airy crumb together as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep its crumb soft and tender.
- Strong's baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
- Cold water
- Adds moisture to the batter, loosening it slightly for a lighter texture.
The step that matters
Gradually add the sifted flour and sugar mixture, beating briskly. Adding the dry mix slowly while beating keeps the air in the whipped eggs. Dumping it in at once or beating gently can deflate the batter and produce a dense cake.
“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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