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Dessert

Sponge Jelly Cake

A light sponge cake with a jelly-like texture made from eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, and boiling water.

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 ↓

Sponge Jelly 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. 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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the eggs until fluffy.

  3. Gradually add the sugar, continuing to beat until well combined.

  4. Sift in the flour and baking powder, mixing gently.

  5. Pour in enough boiling water to achieve a smooth batter.

Bake and cool

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25–30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Let cool before adding your choice of filling.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Beaten air trapped in the batter gives the sponge its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb soft and tender.
Flour
Forms the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises.
Boiling water
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a smooth consistency.

The step that matters

Pour in enough boiling water to achieve a smooth batter. Adding boiling water after the flour loosens the batter and helps it bake moist. Mixing too much after the flour develops gluten, which can make the cake tough. Mix gently and stop once smooth.

“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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