Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Sponge Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the eggs for 8 minutes.
Add the sugar and beat for another 5 minutes.
Stir in the teacup of flour mixed with the cream of tartar.
Beat for 8 minutes before adding the baking soda.
Finally, stir in the remaining cup of flour and beat thoroughly.
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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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
- Trapped air in the beaten foam gives the cake its light, airy structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps stabilise the whipped egg foam.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
- Cream of tartar
- An acid that stabilises the beaten egg foam so it holds its volume.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid to release gas, helping the batter rise.
The step that matters
Stir in the flour and beat thoroughly. Flour contains proteins that form gluten when mixed. Overbeating after the flour is added develops too much gluten, toughening the cake and deflating the air trapped in the foam.
“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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