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 ↓
Spunge Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the batter
Weigh the eggs and use their weight in sugar and ⅔ of that weight in flour.
Beat the yolks with the flour.
Beat the egg whites separately until very stiff.
Gradually mix the egg whites and flour mixture with the yolks.
Beat the combined mixture for 40 minutes.
Bake
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 1 hour and 10 minutes.
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.
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Sugar + flourtop 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
- Eggs
- Whipped whites trap air, giving the cake its light, risen structure, while yolks add richness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps stabilize the whipped egg foam.
- Flour
- Sets during baking to form the cake's firm crumb structure.
The step that matters
Gradually mixing the whites into the yolk batter. Whipped whites hold the air that makes the sponge rise. Adding them gradually and gently keeps that foam from deflating, so the cake stays light instead of dense.
“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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