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Dessert

Inexpensive Sponge Cake

A light, airy cake made with beaten egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, flour, baking powder, hot water, vinegar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Inexpensive 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.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs until thick and lemon-colored.

  2. Slowly add the sugar. Beat well.

  3. Add the hot water.

  4. Add the sifted flour mixed with baking powder.

  5. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff.

  6. Add the salt.

  7. Gently fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture to retain air.

  8. Add the vinegar. Mix gently.

Bake

  1. Butter and flour a baking pan.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 35 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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,652 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

Egg yolks
Add richness, colour and emulsifying fat that helps the batter hold together.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they trap air that lifts the cake and gives it a light crumb.
Flour
Forms the gluten and starch structure that sets the cake's crumb as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise further.
Vinegar
Acidity stabilises the whipped egg white foam and helps it hold its volume.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be beaten until stiff but folded in gently. Overmixing deflates the trapped air, which is what lifts the cake, and the result is a dense, heavy 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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