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Dessert

Deliciously Sticky Sponge Cake

A light, moist sponge cake flavored with lemon, sweetened with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Deliciously Sticky Sponge Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs.

  2. Weigh the eggs and use that weight in powdered sugar.

  3. Grease the pans thickly with butter.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks and sugar together until very light.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff and dry.

  3. Add lemon juice to the yolks and sugar, then mix in half the flour and a third of the egg whites.

  4. Combine all ingredients with a wooden spoon, adding more flour until the batter drops evenly from the spoon.

  5. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites to create a light crust.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 whites provide the airy structure, while yolks add richness and set the crumb.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks whip to a light, stable foam.
Sifted flour
Provides the structure that holds the light foam together as the cake sets.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright flavor that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold the cake's air. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam and produces a dense cake, so the remaining whites should be folded in gently.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, butter. 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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