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
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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the eggs until very light.
Add the sugar and beat again until well combined.
Sift the flour and cream of tartar together three times.
Dissolve the baking soda in the cold water and add it to the egg and sugar mixture.
Mix in the flour immediately and add flavoring to taste.
Bake
Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake for 30 minutes or until 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.
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
- Beaten until light, they trap air that gives the sponge its structure and lift.
- Sugar
- Beaten with the eggs, it helps stabilise the foam and adds sweetness and tenderness.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that set the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Cream of tartar
- An acid that stabilises the egg foam and works with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
The step that matters
Mix in the flour immediately. Once the baking soda is dissolved in the batter, its reaction with the acid starts producing gas. Delaying the flour lets that gas escape before the batter sets, which can leave the cake flat.
“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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