One of my all time favorites is a simple sponge cake, growing up this cake was part of my family’s Sunday tradition. It is super easy and extremely versatile. I use it for variety of desserts. It is favorite with kids, excellent with fruit, whipped cream or plain with coffee or tea.
Haniela's Easy Sponge Cake
(for 9inch or 8 inch cake pan-it will be taller)
Ingredients
- 4 egg whites
- 4 egg yolks
- 200 grams all purpose flour
- 200 grams sugar
- 4 tbl oil
- 4 tbl warm water
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven 350F
- Butter and flour your baking pan.
- In a medium bowl sift together flour salt and baking powder, set aside.
- In a clean bowl, whip egg whites with a pinch of salt, once soft peaks are formed, gradually add 1/2 of the sugar, whip until shiny and stiff peaks are formed. Don't whip it too long though, you want the egg whites to retain moisture, turn the mixer off at once when stiff peaks are formed.
- Scrape the whipped egg white into another bowl. Set aside. Put all the egg yolks into the mixing bowl you just used for making the meringue. It is okay, it doesn't have to be spotless. Add remaining sugar to the egg yolks, using same wire whip attachment, beat the egg yolks, first at medium speed and then at high speed, once your egg yolks have doubled in volume and became pale in color, add oil, by tablespoon, mixing well after each addition, then add warm water by tablespoon, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and beat until combined. Turn off the mixer.
- Using fine mesh strainer sift about 1/3 of flour into the egg yolk mixture and carefully fold the flour in with a spatula, then add about 1/3 of whipped egg white mixture and fold in. Continue with rest of the flour and whipped egg whites, until no streaks are visible. Be gentle and don't over mix. You are looking for a light and airy batter.
- Fill your buttered and floured pan and bake until tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.
- Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Invert it on a cooling rack and let cool completely.
Recipe Notes
You can fill your cake with jam, buttercream, cream cheese, lemon curd, fruit, whipped cream. Cake can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
Tips:
Adding pinch of salt to egg white when making meringue helps to stabilize the egg whites, this is an old trick my grandmother taught me, you can also use 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar for the same purpose.
Hanka, I do the same… it was my very first cake I made as a child, it was the first cake I made here in Greece (and everybody was excited about the softness of this cake).
It is really really wonderful and very versatile sponge cake..
I do it half-half (white and cocoa added and folded to create a 2 color-cake), I use sometimes orange juice instead of water (fantastic orange sponge cake) or even a bit of strawberry jam added works fantastic.
Really lovely cake! and super easy to make!
I always have such a hard time getting my cakes this tall. I have to try using cream of tartar next time.
Is love to have this with fruit and cream. This is my all time favorite way to eat cake 🙂 beautiful, Hani!