Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Sponge Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Cook sugar and water to soft ball stage.
Make the batter
Pour the syrup over the stiffly beaten egg whites.
Add the egg yolks and mix well.
Gently fold in the sifted flour and cream of tartar.
Add flavoring and slowly incorporate the melted butter.
Bake
Bake in a cold oven at 250°F (120°C) for 1 hour.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to foam, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and fat, and help the batter set into a tender crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that set the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, cooked to soft ball stage, stabilizes the whipped egg whites.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the egg whites, helping them whip to a stable, stronger foam.
- Butter
- Adds fat for moisture and a tender, rich crumb.
The step that matters
Folding in the flour and cream of tartar. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whipped egg whites. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam, which leads to a dense, flat cake.
“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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