Easy Sponge Cake

This Easy Sponge Cake recipe is delicious and quick to make. My light and moist vanilla sponge cake is super versatile. It can be used to make layered birthday cakes, strawberry shortcakes, trifles, icebox cakes, mini desserts, and more.

Updated post from 2011.

STEP BY STEP HOW TO MAKE EASY SPONGE CAKE

This simple Vanilla Sponge Cake is a favorite with kids and adults alike.

Fill it with Whipped Cream, Swiss Buttercream, German Buttercream, Ganache, Chocolate Mousse, Cream Cheese Frosting, Chocolate Ganache Frosting or jam. Or enjoy it dusted with powdered sugar with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream.

WHAT ARE SPONGE CAKE INGREDIENTS

This recipe uses the basic ingredients and what’s great about this sponge cake recipe is that you can use plain flour.

• Flour – all-purpose, for super tender crumb use cake flour
• Granulated Sugar
• Salt
• Baking Powder
• Eggs – separated, at room temperature
• Oil
• Warm Water or Milk
• Vanilla Extract

PREPARE A BAKING PAN

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C and prepare a baking pan. Spray the pan with a nonstick spray and line it with parchment and either spray parchment with nonstick spray or use melted butter and brush it with melted butter and dust with flour.

I often double my my sponge cake recipe and when I do I either use a 9×13-inch pan or a round 10-inch cake pan. To make sure my 10 inch cake bakes evenly I use a heating core/flower nail that I spray with a nonstick spray and coat if flour.

MIX DRY INGREDIENTS

What I love about this recipe is that I don’t need any special flour. Plain, all-purpose flour gives fantastic results; for a super-fine crumb you can use cake flour. In a large bowl whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt (steps 1-3). Set aside.

WHAT IS RIBBON STAGE – EGG YOLKS AND SUGAR

Ribbon stage is a baking term that refers to batter consistency. It is reached when batter lifted up with a whisk, spoon, or spatula falls back down into a bowl slowly forming a ribbon. It should hold its shape for a few moments, slowly disappearing, blending into the mixture.

Into a bowl add egg yolks and remaining granulated sugar. Beat on medium-high speed till pale in color and doubled in volume. Scrapping the bowl a few times to ensure egg yolks are thoroughly blended in. Beat until mixture reaches the ribbon stage (steps 1-2).

BEAT IN OIL

After you reach the ribbon stage it’s time to add oil. Slowly in one continuous pour beat in oil on low to medium speed. Blend well (steps 3-4). Then pour warm water into a measuring cup. And gradually, slowly in one continuous pour beat in warm water. Scrape the bowl a few times to ensure the mixture is homogeneous. I’m using warm water to make sure all of the sugar crystals are completely dissolved. With the addition of water, the mixture will become thinner (step 5).

Next, you can beat in Vanilla Extract and continue beating for 2 minutes, until the mixture becomes very light in color and aerated (steps 6-8).

HOW TO MAKE A MERINGUE

Start by bringing eggs to room temperature. Leave eggs on the counter for about 30 minutes. Or you can place eggs into warm water. They will be at room temperature in about 5 minutes or so.

Next, separate egg yolks and egg whites. Pour egg whites into a clean, grease-free bowl. With a wire attachment, beat egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar (or use 1/2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar) until foamy (steps 1-2). Then gradually beat in about half of the granulated sugar listed in the recipe. Beat egg whites until a stiff and glossy peak is formed (steps 3-4).

MIX CAKE BATTER: FOLD SPONGE CAKE BATTER

Gradually fold sifted flour alternating with meringue into the egg yolk mixture. Do not stir. It is important to fold the ingredients into the yellow egg yolk mixture. Stirring will deflate the cake batter significantly resulting in a dense cake batter.

Once no more flour streaks are visible in the cake batter give it 3 more folding strokes. Focus on getting all the way to the bottom of the bowl to ensure the batter is thoroughly mixed.

BAKE SPONGE CAKE

Pour sponge cake batter into a prepared cake pan(I doubled the batch and baked 10-inch cake today). Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes. Check the cake after 30 minutes, if the top is browning too much quickly place foil over it to prevent over-browning. (This is usually not an issue with 8 or 9-inch cakes.) And continue baking for additional 5 minutes. The cake is done when a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean, without any crumbs attached to it.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes then invert the cake onto a cooling rack. Use a kitchen towel to handle a hot baking pan. Remove the flower nail.

Let the cake cool till lukewarm then wrap it in a plastic wrap and let cool completely at on the kitchen counter.

CAN I USE 2 EGGS TO MAKE A SPONGE CAKE?

You can make this simple sponge cake recipe with two eggs and oil. Cake batter made with two eggs will produce a small. Use small baking pans. Find the ingredient measurements in the recipe card notes.

WHAT BAKING PANS SIZE CAN I USE

You can use round, square, rectangle baking pans to make your sponge cake. I’ve used this cake to make my very tall Holiday Peppermint Cake using 4-6 inch cake layers. This cake can be stacked with proper supports, too.

EASY SPONGE CAKE	PAN SIZE
1 batch	9-inch round or square pan, line the sides, cake bakes tall
1 batch	two 8-inch round pans, cake are not very tall and they bake faster
double batch	10 – inch round cake pan, line the sides, use a heating core, cake bakes tall
double batch	9×13-inch pan, cake bakes tall, if possible use a heating core
1 and 1/2 batch	four 6-inch cake pans

I often make a double batch of my sponge cake recipe and bake it in a 9x13x2 (33 x 23 x 5 cm) inch cake pan.

WHAT IT THE BEST ICING FOR SPONGE CAKE?

There is a great variety of icing/frostings that work well with a sponge cake. My personal favorites are Whipped Cream, German Buttercream, Lemon or Raspberry Curd, Chocolate Ganache Frosting (especially white chocolate frosting is delicious with raspberries), jam, or any fruit filling such as Strawberry Mousse.

• I used this quick sponge cake recipe to make:
• Holiday Peppermint Cake with a Candy Sail
• Easy Rainbow Buttercream Cake
• Striped Holiday Cake

EASY SPONGE CAKE SUCCESS TIPS

• How long does sponge cake last? Store cake in an airtight container, in the fridge for 5 – 6 days. And unfilled sponge cake keeps at room temperature for 2-3 days.
• Can I freeze sponge cake? Freeze sponge cake right after it cools, tightly wrapped in a food plastic wrap. You can freeze a sponge cake up to 3 months. Let it thaw on the counter.
• Why is my sponge cake dense? Sugar crystals were not completely dissolved. Also, under-mixing can be an issue. Stirring instead of folding the batter at the last stage of mixing.
• My sponge cake didn’t rise, what happened? Check the raising agent expiration date. It can also mean that cake wasn’t baked long enough.
• My sponge cake is dry, why? Over-beaten egg whites. Over baking. To amend a dry sponge, use simple syrup. Stop the mixer a few times while whipping meringue and test if a stiff peak is formed. When meringue is overmixed it becomes grainy. The grainy meringue will make your cake dry.
• Why do I have giant holes and tunnels in a cake? This is usually caused by over-mixing. Quick solution, fill the holes with buttercream.
• Cake sank in the middle, why?
  • Opening the oven door in the early stages of baking can cause the cake to sink in the middle.
  • Closing the oven door too abruptly.
  • Cooling the cake too quickly. Don’t move freshly out of the oven-baked sponge cake to a cool, drafty room.
  • The batter sits too long before it goes into the oven
  • Over-beating of the batter at the last stage.
• Can I make a 2 tier cake using this recipe? Yes, you can. Use a proper stacking method. Don’t stack a heavy cake (pound cake) on top of a sponge cake.

MORE DELICIOUS CAKE RECIPES

• Pumpkin Pound Cake
• Easy Chocolate Sponge Cake
• Delicious Cheesecake Recipes
• Ultimate Chocolate Mud Cake via Baking Envy
• Chocolate Banana Icebox Cake
• Chocolate Mint Stracciatella Cakeroll

Did you make this recipe? Tag @hanielas on Instagram and hashtag it #hanielas

TO MAKE EASY SPONGE CAKE WITH OIL YOU NEED

• Find all the tools in my Amazon Shop
• Baking Pan
• Bowl
• Hand-Held or Stand Mixer
• Parchment
• Spatula
• Cooling Rack
• Mixing Bowls
• Mesh Sieve – to sift dry ingredients

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I updated this post from 2011 with brand new process pictures and written text.

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