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Dessert

White Sponge Cake

A light, airy cake made with sugar, flour, egg whites, and optional flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

White Sponge Cake

about 22 pieces
Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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

  1. Sift the sugar several times.

  2. Sift the flour before measuring, then sift it with the baking powder several times.

Make and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until light, then gradually add the sugar while continuing to beat.

  2. Once all the sugar is added, pour the mixture into a deep square or round pan.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C), increasing the heat slightly after the cake has risen.

  4. This cake is nice with or without icing and will yield about 22 pieces.

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Coffee + flourtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg 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

Egg whites
Beaten to a light foam, they trap air that lifts and structures the cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, beaten with the whites, helps stabilise the foam.
Flour
Provides the starch and structure that sets the cake's crumb as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.

The step that matters

Adding the sugar to the egg whites. Sugar added gradually to beaten whites helps form a stable, glossy foam. Adding it too quickly or before the whites are light can collapse the foam, leaving a dense cake.

“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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