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 ↓
Hot Water Sponge 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the flour with the cream of tartar and salt.
In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth.
Make the batter
Combine the wet and dry ingredients, stirring until smooth.
Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water and add it to the mixture.
Stir briskly and pour into a prepared baking pan.
Bake
Bake in the preheated oven until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
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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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 + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 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 eggs trap air and provide structure for the light, sponge-like crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten network that sets the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps stabilise the beaten eggs while adding tenderness.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, stabilising the egg foam and helping the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Boiling water
- Adds moisture and heat that help the cake expand and set quickly in the oven.
The step that matters
Stir briskly after adding the baking soda and water. Baking soda starts releasing gas as soon as it meets the acidic batter and hot water. Mixing and pouring promptly keeps those bubbles in the batter so the cake rises well instead of going flat.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, cream):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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