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Dessert

Sponge Custard Cake

A sponge cake with a custard filling made from milk, sugar, flour, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Sponge Custard Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the egg whites.

  3. Beat the egg yolks.

  4. Combine the beaten whites and yolks, then add sugar.

  5. Lightly stir in the flour.

  6. Dissolve the baking soda in a little cold water and add it to the mixture.

  7. Pour the batter into a square cake pan.

  8. Bake until golden.

  9. Once cooled, cut the cake into squares.

  10. Tear the squares open with a fork.

Make the cream and assemble

  1. Scald the milk.

  2. Mix the scalded milk with sugar and flour.

  3. Beat the eggs.

  4. Thoroughly mix in the flour and sugar.

  5. Pour the scalded milk into the egg mixture.

  6. Cook in a double boiler for about 10 minutes, stirring until thickened.

  7. Once cooled, flavor the cream.

  8. Spread the cream between the cake squares.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Whites trap air for lift, and yolks set and enrich the crumb and cream.
Flour
Starch and protein form the structure of the cake and thicken the cream.
Cream of tartar
Acid stabilizes the beaten egg whites so their foam holds its volume.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas and help the cake rise.
Milk
Provides moisture and the liquid base that thickens into the custard cream.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps tenderize the cake crumb.

The step that matters

Pouring the scalded milk into the egg mixture. Eggs thicken when heated, but if very hot liquid hits them too fast they can scramble into lumps. Adding the hot milk gradually while stirring warms the eggs evenly so the custard stays smooth.

“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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