Sponge Cake

Category: Cakes > Foam Cake > Sponge Cake

Okay, I gotta admit that foam cakes are trickier than butter cakes. My first attempt at a sponge cake failed. It was only about 1" high, a little too done on the sides, and, although it tasted okay, was a bit too eggy for my tastes.

I have no clue what went wrong. There are a million different sponge cake recipes out there and they all vary greatly so it is hard for me to pin point where in the process I went wrong. I noted that the large eggs I used seemed a bit larger than normal with a lot of egg white. I might have ended up with too much egg. I might have messed up with combining all the final ingredients and "killed" too much of the air.

But, just like with the Angel Food cake, I was determined to succeed. The next night I tried again after a bunch of research on the net and armed with a different recipe. Victory was mine in the end.



Recipe:

• 4 Eggs, separated
  
• 1 cup Sugar
  
• 4 tbsp. Cold Water-
  
• 1 cup Cake Flour
  
• 1 tsp. Baking Powder
  
• 1 tsp. Vanilla or flavoring of choice
  

Separate your eggs and let them get to room temperature. Preheat oven at 325 degrees. Grease the bottom of your baking pan but not the sides. Place parchment paper on bottom of baking pan. Beat Egg Yolks until thick and lemon colored. Gradually beat in sugar. Sift Cake Flour and Baking Powder together. On low speed, mix in flour mixture alternately with water and vanilla. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until it forms stiff peaks. Gently fold egg whites into batter. Pour the batter into baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes.

Baking Tips:

• Make sure you don't have any grease that will touch your cake in your baking pan.
  
• Make sure you don't have any grease in the bowl your egg whites will be in.
  
• Fold in a figure 8 pattern.
  
• Place baking strips around your pan for a more evenly cooked cake. The outside of cakes cook faster than the middle. This also causes domed cakes. Baking strips will help prevent this.
  
• If you want, you can add 1 tsp. lemon zest for a lemony flavoring.
  
• Don't use a tester or toothpick to test if cake is done. Poking a hole in the cake, especially if it is not done, will cause it to dry out. Instead lightly press on cake. If it is springy and springs back it is done.