The Lightest Sponge Cake Recipe – Best For Layered Soft Cakes

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The best recipe for LIGHT-AS-AIR  Sponge Cake used to make layered cakes.

The Recipe Intro↓ has more information, related links as well as Recipe Video. If you’d like to check it out.

♦Prep time:30min ♦Cook time:35min ♦Yield: 4 layers of sponge  for a 9 inch round cake (to be filled, topped and decorated as desired)

You can strike through ingredients, as you prep them, by clicking on the ingredient.

Ingredients:

Method:

Preparation:

1. Take out the eggs from the fridge. Separate the whites and yolks into separate bowls while the eggs are cold. Make sure there’s no trace of yellow in the white. Cover and set aside. Allow to come down to room temperature.
2. Put the 1 cup fine grain sugar in a food processor and process for 30 seconds – 1 minute to create an even finer granulated sugar: a must for our light as air cake. Don’t powder it though. Set aside.
3. Sift the Cake flour and salt together repeatedly for 3 times.  First sift, using a wire sieve into a wide bowl. Then drop onto waxed lunch paper or parchment paper and use this paper to easily drop the flour back into the sieve easily. Repeat this process two more times(Refer Video). Set aside.
   
4. Mix the oil, juice, water as well as vanilla extract in a cup and set aside, allowing it to come up to room temperature.

On to Making the Cake:

1. Preheat the oven now to 350°F /180ºc.
2. Beat the egg yolks with the fine granulated sugar that we had set aside. Beat until very pale yellow in color and ribbon-like streaks are created when lifted. Set aside.
3. In another large bowl,  with the use of  a hand mixer with a wire whisk attachment, (make sure there is absolutely no residue from the previous cooking on the bowl or whisk. It should be sterile and dry for best results.) Beat the Egg Whites till foamy. Add the creme of tartar. Continue beating till soft peaks form.  At this point, it’s better to continue beating by hand till stiff peaks occur (do not overbeat).
4. Give the oil-juice mixture that we set aside a good stir.  Add this to the Yolk Mixture.  Stir to incorporate.
5. Now, add the sifted flour mixture into this yolk-oil mixture,  a little at a time till all the flour is evenly incorporated.
6. Lastly, add the whipped egg white and fold it into the flour batter.  This is best done with a plastic spatula, folding in the egg white fairly quickly, in one direction – without over-mixing (IMPORTANT). Also, make sure there is no thick yolk mixture at the bottom of the bowl.  Fold in gently but quickly till all the egg white is used.  (A little bit of white lines is okay but no thick bits of yellow!)  
7. Divide & Pour into 2 (UNGREASED, ALUMINUM) cake pans equally (eyeball it).
8.  Pat gently on the countertop move from side to side and pat again to remove air bubbles. 
9. Bake 30-35 minutes or till the center is set.
10. Remove from oven and INVERT  onto elevated Wire racks.  (This will prevent the cake from sinking  and help to cool off from the bottom; A good way to elevate is to place the wire racks atop kitchen colanders or baskets.)
11. Once the cakes are cooled completely, use a sharp knife to go around the edge of the pans to release the cake onto flat plates. Slice each cake into two using a broad serrated knife. (I find the plastic serrated cake knife you get along with birthday cakes works well if you don’t have a professional one)
12. Add whipped cream filling and toppings and decorate the cake as desired.
13. See my recipes, where I have used this sponge cake recipe as the base ⇓below.

The Lightest Sponge Cake Recipe – Best For Layered Soft Cakes

Notes:

• When whisking egg whites it is absolutely essential that your bowl and wire whisk are free from any residue. I like to wash these utensils with vinegar and warm water and scrub clean with soap after every use.
• Please use aluminum pans and not non-stick. (Ungreased!).
• Do not leave the cake in the oven to cool. When done immediately invert on wire racks to cool.
• Gather bowls, measuring cups, spoons, and all the ingredients and processor/mixer/whisks before you start anything or your kitchen can get chaotic!
• I don’t recommend baking the two tins on the upper and lower racks of a smaller oven. For evenly bakes cakes, either bake on the same level or wait till one is baked to put in the second tin.
• Cream of tartar allows egg whites to be whipped for longer without collapsing
• It is best to separate the eggs while they are cold. Cold eggs are sturdier, the yolks, less likely to break into the whites, while separating.

Key Ingredients: Cake Flour, Eggs, Sugar, Oil, Juice, Vanilla Extract, Cream of tartar, Salt.

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