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Lemon Cream Sponge

A lemon-flavored sponge cake set with gelatin and folded with stiff egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lemon Cream Sponge

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks with 4 tablespoons of sugar.

  2. Add the lemon juice, grated rind, hot water, and remaining sugar.

  3. Place the mixture in a double boiler and cook until it resembles soft custard, adding the gelatin just before removing from heat.

Set and serve

  1. Once cooled and beginning to set, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites until smooth.

  2. Wet a mold with cold water and pour in the mixture.

  3. Serve with cream or soft custard.

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 + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Lemon + gelatintop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,215 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Egg whites are whipped to add lightness and airy structure to the set mixture.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture into a firm, sliceable form as it cools.
Lemons
Provide acidity and aroma from the juice and grated rind.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the lemon.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. If the base is still warm or has not begun to set, the whites will deflate and the mixture will lose its airy texture. Fold gently, after cooling, until smooth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, gelatin):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, gelatin. 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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