Sponge Cake

Sponge cake - I often think of it as a lighter, fluffier version of a scone, in the sense that its primary purpose, in my view, is a Best Supporting Food role, as a vessel for excellent jam and thick Chantilly cream.

I also like a passionfruit sponge, absolutely bursting with cream, and generously topped with sweet and tart passionfruit icing, which sets ever so slightly, cracking a little when you bite into your featherlight slice.

But for an accompaniment for a cup of tea, when the biscuit tin is empty, a sponge cake is really no effort at all, as long as you take the easy option and use electronic beaters!

I use a few recipes for sponge, depending on what mood I'm in, and what ingredients are in the cupboard.  Sometimes I add a drizzle of melted butter, with or without a little hot water, for a slightly more flavourful sponge, which will also keep a little better (possibly into the next day, but not much beyond).  Sometimes all of the flour is substituted with wheaten cornflour, or a custard powder is added.

For this cake, I kept fairly simple, but I flit between a few recipes - Australian Women's Weekly, Maggie Beer, Stephanie Alexander, CWA, even my old Home Economics textbook (Cookery the Australian Way) all feature excellent sponge recipes.  

Grease and line two round 20cm cake tins - I like heavy aluminium, I am not fond of non-stick for sponges, as the tins are too dark and lead to over browning.  Line the sides if you can be bothered, coming 4cm above the rim, to protect the tops from over browning (I didn't bother this time).

Whisk together 4 room temperature eggs with 2/3 cup caster sugar on medium high speed for about 7 minutes, or until very thick and will hold a ribbon when the beaters are lifted out.

Meanwhile, sift together 1/3 cup each of plain flour, self raising flour and cornflour.  Sift them three times.

Transfer the beaten eggs and sugar into a nice large bowl, and sift the flours over the top of the mixture.  Using an incredibly light hand, gently but thoroughly fold in the flour - you do not want to loose any of your air, but you need to make sure the flour is incorporated properly.  Cooking folk lore would have you do things such as folding the mixture in next to an open window with a light breeze, or whilst walking around the garden.  Some recommend avoiding talking while you fold.  Personally, I recommend just doing it and not worrying too much!

Using a scale if possible, evenly divide the mixture between the two prepared cake tins, then spin them on the flat bench, to use centrifugal force to even the tops of the mixture.

Bake at 180 degrees for around 20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean and they are just starting to pull away from the sides of the tins.  Do not open the oven door for at least 18 minutes, or you risk the sponges sinking into a disappointing pancake.

Remove from the oven, cool for just a minute, then run a sharp knife around the edges (if you haven't lined the sides).  Pop them out onto a wire cooling rack covered with a tea towel (to prevent the rack making marks on the cakes) then turn them over again onto their bottoms to cool.

They won't take long to cool.  Meanwhile, whip your cream, add a little caster sugar.  Place one sponge cake on a serving stand or plate, and spread generously with good jam (raspberry, traditionally), then a thick layer of cream.  Top with the other sponge cake, and sieve some icing sugar over the top.

A few additional notes...

A layer of berries (matching the jam, and either intact or lightly crushed) in between the jam and cream is always a good addition.

Some people turn the bottom cake upside down, so that the 'bottoms' of each cake are adjacent to the jam and cream.

For a passionfruit sponge, fill the cakes with cream, then top with an icing made from passionfruit puree (fresh or tinned) mixed with icing sugar, and a little orange juice or water if you need more liquid.

To slice, use a sharp serrated knife (such as a good bread knife) and wipe clean with a hot damp cloth in between cutting each slice.

Sponges don't keep very well, so please eat it all.  Pop a slice or two on a plate, and drop off to a neighbour if you really can't finish it yourself.

A competition sponge is supposed to be 4cm tall.  Of course, it doesn't matter one bit when you're just making a cake for home, but it's useful to have a rough idea of how much your cakes should rise.  Much less than 4cm tall, and you might want to think about why - did you over mix?  Was the oven hot enough?  The cakes pictured here are exactly 4cm tall.

A thick layer of excellent raspberry jam:

See how the bottom layer appears flatter than the top?  This is simply because I took this photo about half an hour after serving the cake, and a sponge cake is so light that the weight of the jam and cream compressed the bottom layer a little!