Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Sponge Cake
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
Beat the eggs until very light.
Add the sugar and beat again.
Sift the flour and cream of tartar together three times.
Dissolve the baking soda in the cold water and add it to the egg and sugar mixture.
Mix in the flour all at once and add flavoring to taste.
Bake
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for thirty minutes or more.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Eggs
- Whipped to trap air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps keep the crumb tender.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, stabilising the whipped eggs and aiding a fine texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
The step that matters
Mix in the flour all at once. Folding in flour all at once and mixing only until combined keeps the air whipped into the eggs. Overmixing knocks out that air and develops gluten, which can make the cake dense and tough.
“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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