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Dessert

Coffee Sponge

A gelatin-based coffee sponge cake made with sugar, coffee, gelatin, water, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,344 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Coffee Sponge

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coffee base

  1. Boil 2 cups of sugar with 1 quart of strong coffee.

  2. Soak ½ box of gelatine in 1 cup of water for 2 hours.

  3. Add the soaked gelatine to the coffee mixture and remove from heat as soon as it melts.

Set and whip

  1. Let the mixture cool in a cold place until it begins to thicken.

  2. Add the beaten whites of 4 eggs and beat for 15 minutes while standing the bowl in ice water.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold to harden.

Unmold and serve

  1. To serve, briefly place the mold in boiling water, invert it, and the sponge will slip out easily.

  2. Serve with cream and sugar or with whipped cream.

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 + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Coffee + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,239 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to create a light, airy sponge texture.
Gelatine
Sets the coffee liquid so the sponge holds its shape when unmolded.
Sugar
Sweetens the coffee and balances its bitterness.
Strong coffee
Provides the main liquid and the coffee flavour of the sponge.

The step that matters

Removing the gelatine from heat as it melts. Gelatine loses its setting power if it is overheated or boiled, so the sponge may fail to hold its shape. Heating only until it dissolves keeps the gelling strength intact.

“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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