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Dessert

Kentucky Sponge Cake Roll

A sponge cake roll made with flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, water, and served with dressing and cream or sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,481 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓

Kentucky Sponge Cake Roll

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Mix flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda together.

  2. Add enough water to form a batter.

Bake and roll

  1. Bake quickly in a pan at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Turn out onto a wet towel.

  3. Spread with dressing and roll up.

  4. Serve with cream or sauce.

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. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the starch and protein structure that holds the cake's airy crumb.
Cream of tartar
Acidic partner to baking soda, helping the leavening gas form.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas that lifts the batter.

The step that matters

Bake quickly in a pan at 400°F (200°C).. A thin sponge dries out fast in a hot oven. Overbaking makes it stiff and prone to cracking when rolled, so it should be removed as soon as it is set and springy.

“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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