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Dessert

Lemon Sponge Cake Pudding

A lemon-flavored sponge cake pudding made with sugar, butter, lemon juice and zest, water, egg yolks, and topped with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Sponge Cake Pudding

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.

Make the lemon custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine white sugar, butter, juice and zest of lemons, water, and egg yolks.

  2. Cook over medium heat until thickened.

Assemble and bake

  1. Slice sponge cake and place in a pan.

  2. Pour the lemon mixture over the sponge cake.

  3. Beat egg whites until stiff, adding 2 tablespoons of sugar for each white.

  4. Spread the beaten egg whites over the top of the pudding.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Thicken the lemon mixture into a rich, set custard when cooked.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff meringue that forms a light, golden topping.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the lemon mixture.
Lemons
Provide the juice and zest that give the pudding its sharp, bright flavour.
White sugar
Sweetens the lemon custard and sugars the meringue, helping it brown.
Sponge cake
Forms the base layer that soaks up the lemon custard.

The step that matters

Cooking the lemon mixture until thickened. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with heat, but overheating can curdle them. Cook over medium heat and stir steadily until the mixture coats a spoon.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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