Basic Sponge Cake

The very basis of creating a beautiful cake is a good cake base and one of the most popular and adaptable cakes is the humble sponge cake. When I first baked a sponge cake, I was overwhelmed by the numerous recipes, everyone was saying different things: the ingredients were more or else similar but the amounts were all different and to make a good sponge cake you need to get the ingredients right or the cake becomes too soggy or hard. Here is a tried and tested recipe, I made this for A’s birthday and it turned out just the way I wanted.

Note: Invest in a good quality automatic whisk or hand mixer to incorporate air easily in your cake and also save time and energy. It is a very important step if you want to get soft, springy sponge cakes. You can also use the automatic whisk to make a fluffy omelette or puree your veggies to get smooth gravies.

Prep time: 35 min Baking time: 25 min Serves: 10-12 slices
Ingredients:

Eggs: 5 large
Sugar:1 cup
Flour: 3/4th cup
Cornflour: 1/4th cup
Baking powder: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Lemon juice: 1 tsp
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
Butter: To grease the pan

Method:

1) Sift flour, cornflour and baking powder and mix them. Keep aside.
2) Separate whites and yolks of eggs. Whisk yolks with lemon juice till the mixture thickens and becomes pale yellow in colour and creamy in texture.
3) Add vanilla essence and whisk for another 5 minutes. Add 3/4th cup sugar gradually and keep whisking for another 8-10 minutes till the mixture becomes thick. Keep aside.
4) Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt. When the whites becomes stiff, add the remaining 1/4th cup sugar gradually and whisk for another 8 minutes until the mixture forms stiff peaks.

5) Fold in the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and add the flour mixture gradually. Mix it with a spatula and don’t overbeat it or else the air from the whites and yolks will escape.
6) Pour the mixture into a greased cake pan and bake in a pre-heated oven for 25 minutes at 325 degrees F. 
(I used a 10-inch round springform pan which makes it easier to remove the cake later. You can also put a round piece of parchment paper or wax paper on the base of the pan.)

7) Poke with a toothpick to check if the inside is baked or sticky. Take out from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pan gently and cool on a wire rack.
(Or just put it on a plate like me as I don’t have one! I put 2 small spoons underneath the cake so that it gets lifted a little from the plate and the hot air can pass without moistening the cake. ‘Jugaad‘ :P)
8) When the cake is completely cool, you can spread icing or frosting and make designs. I like to use cream cheese and sugar or sweet cream (whipping cream) and sugar frosting.

Note: When I make any cake which has a sponge cake base, please refer to this recipe. For eg, I will be posting a Tres leches cake soon which uses this recipe.