[SPONGE sb.1] A very light sweet cake made with flour, milk, eggs and sugar.

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1825.  York Herald, 18 June, 2/1. The assailants scrambled amongst themselves for the ices, which they picked out of the glasses with their fingers, or hit at as if sponge-cake.

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1843.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., I. 269. A hot jelly, and one modest sponge cake.

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1860.  All Year Round, No. 48. 514. I cannot dine on stale sponge-cakes that turn to sand in the mouth.

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1874.  Burnand, My Time, 97. He returned … with a bottle of lemonade … and two sponge-cakes in a bag.

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  attrib.  1846.  Soyer, Cookery, 565. Have buttered a large sponge-cake mould.

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1883.  ‘Annie Thomas,’ Mod. Housewife, 9. Some nice soup and a spongecake-pudding.

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