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Dessert

Cream Sponge

A sponge cake with a creamy filling made from milk, cornstarch, eggs, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cream Sponge

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the sponge

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Gradually add the flour, water, and baking powder, mixing until smooth.

  4. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, heat the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix cornstarch with a little cold milk to dissolve.

  3. Add the cornstarch mixture to the hot milk, stirring constantly until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool slightly, then beat in the eggs and sugar.

  5. Add flavoring to taste and spread between the layers of the sponge.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Trap air when beaten with sugar, giving the sponge its light structure and set.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the sponge rise and turn airy.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth, sliceable cream filling.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream filling, adding moisture and richness.

The step that matters

Thickening the cornstarch mixture into the hot milk. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the mixture reaches a boil while being stirred constantly. Stopping early leaves the filling thin, while stirring too little can cause lumps and scorching on the base of the pan.

“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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