Name: Cream Sponge Cake
Ingredients: 2 eggs; ½ cup sweet cream; 1 cup white sugar; 1 heaping cup flour; 1 teaspoon cream of tartar; ¼ teaspoon baking soda; lemon zest

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Cream Sponge Cake

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 batter

Break the eggs into a cup and fill with sweet cream.
Add the sugar, flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda, then mix well until smooth.
Add lemon zest for flavor.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 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: Provide structure and moisture, and help trap air for a lighter crumb.
Sweet cream: Adds moisture and richness to the batter.
White sugar: Adds sweetness and helps give the crumb a tender texture.
Flour: Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Cream of tartar: Adds acidity that stabilizes the egg structure and works with baking soda to help rising.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas for rising and helps browning.