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Dessert

Plain Sponge Cake

A light cake made from eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Plain Sponge Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with the powdered sugar until well combined.

  2. Gradually stir in 1 cup of sifted flour.

  3. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the mixture.

  4. Sift 2 teaspoons of baking powder into the remaining 1 cup of flour, then fold the baking powder and flour into the mixture.

  5. Slowly stir in the boiling water a little at a time.

  6. Add salt to taste, but do not add more flour even if the mixture seems thin.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into shallow tins.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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
Whipped whites and yolks provide the structure that lets the sponge rise and hold its shape.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and dissolves easily into the yolks for a smooth, fine crumb.
Flour
Forms the gluten network and sets the cake's structure once baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
Boiling water
Adds moisture and loosens the batter, helping it bake through with a tender texture.

The step that matters

Folding the beaten egg whites into the mixture. Whipped whites hold the air that makes the sponge light. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, while gentle folding keeps it, so the cake rises well.

“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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