Why it works: Flour and sugar 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 ↓
Hot Water Sponge Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Cream the egg yolks and sugar together.
Add the flour and baking powder, mixing well.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.
Stir in the boiling water last.
Bake
Pour the batter into a tube pan and bake.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Flour + sugartop 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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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
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and structure, and help emulsify the batter.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts the cake.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender crumb.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, making the cake rise.
- Boiling water
- Adds moisture and helps the batter stay soft and tender.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Fold gently so the air trapped in the whites is kept. Stirring hard deflates the batter, which leads to a dense, flat 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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