I started baking and wanted to find out which sponge cake is the best for baking a cake. But I found many other recipes on the Internet, so I decided to research it a little more.
We can certainly agree that each household has a different family recipe, and as for countries, it's the same as a different country has a different favourite sponge cake recipe, but what everyone can agree on is that the base of the sponge cake consists of eggs, sugar and flour.
There are many different recipes in the world. How should a self-taught person decide which recipe and which procedure to use to bake an excellent cake? How do teachers decide which recipe to teach their students? If you are a teacher in pastry studies, please let me know. Watch my videos of different recipes and compared at the end.
Come on a journey of exploration with me.
I am a Slovak living in England. According to the English Wikipedia (*) sponge cake is mentioned in the book by Gervase Markham, The English Housewife, from 1615, which consists of eggs, sugar and flour and, interestingly, the spices of anise and coriander are added to it. Also, there was no baking powder at this time. According to English Wikipedia (*), Englishman Alfred Bird invented baking powder in 1843 in Birmingham, and before that baking was completely different.
However, some Slovak sponge cake recipes still do not use baking powder, but make the dough by thoroughly beating an egg, which gives the sponge cake fullness. Some do. In England, however, they use baking powder much more, and therefore the eggs are not mixed as well in their recipes.
The property of baking powder is to lift the sponge up and spread the amount of dough during baking. You should add about one teaspoon of baking powder to 100g of plain flour. In England, you can buy baking flour without baking powder or already mixed with the baking powder. However, the difference between English and Slovak flour is that in England they only have two thicknesses of flour. Coarse for bread or baking flour, but they don't have a choice between smooth or semi-coarse as in Slovakia or Poland.
But back to the baking powder or increasing the amount of batter when baking a sponge cake: it is important to know that mixing eggs or rubbing butter and sugar into the dough will cause bubbles from the air and they will open the batter during baking (by temperature). But only before the flour is added. The flour must be mixed into the batter mix very gently and minimally, otherwise the sponge cake would be too hard (with long mixing after adding flour), because flour contains gluten.
While researching, I found out that there are a few other sponge cake recipes and a few other procedures. In other countries, these other sponge cakes are called by other names, but in Slovakia, all the different recipes and procedures are called sponge cakes. I decided to try several of these recipes and make a video.
Sponge cake basics
The basis of sponge cake is eggs, sugar and flour. Then you can add baking powder, oil, butter or margarine, milk or water, flavour (such as vanilla, lemon, peppermint, etc.), cocoa (remove as much from the flour as you add cocoa, otherwise it will be dry) or nuts. In England, sponge cake without fat is called Sponge cake and Genoise cake with melted fat. Fat-free sponge cake is drier and confectioners usually pour sweet sugar water on top and go with fruit. A sponge cake with fat is more springy and moist, it doesn't crumble as much and melts on the tongue. It does not need sugar coating and is used more for cakes with creams.
The process of baking a sponge cake
Now how do you prepare your sponge?.
The easiest way to make a sponge cake with fat is to put everything in a bowl and mix everything together. This procedure is easy even for beginners and cannot be messed up. The key is to have butter or margarine and eggs at room temperature, otherwise the batter will not come together well and do not mix it for too long. This sponge cake is very easy. Check out my Queen Victoria sponge cake video where I baked both sponge cakes using these two different methods.
The second method for sponge cake with fat (where the fat is butter or margarine, not oil) is to mix room temperature butter with sugar (preferably granulated sugar) until the butter is soft and changes colour (lightens) for about 10 minutes with a mixer (longer if by hand) to it was beautifully fluffy and should have more volume. If you have a proper mixer at home, then for mixing butter you would use this first addition to whip the butter
and the other for whipping dough with eggs. Then the eggs are added one at a time, stirring constantly, and finally the flour with baking powder, flavoring (like vanilla, lemon, peppermint, etc.) and a tablespoon or two of milk are added. After adding the flour, the dough is mixed minimally.
I have seen the following procedures for sponge cake with oil or water:
The first and easiest method for sponge cake without butter is to mix whole eggs with sugar until foamy. Depending on whether you decide to add oil or water, add them here and then gently mix in the flour (with or without baking powder).
The second method for sponge cake without butter is to mix the eggs separately. Mix the yolks with ¾ of the sugar until frothy, then add oil or water (if the recipe mentions it or you decided to add it) and then gently mix in the flour (with or without baking powder) and gently mix the snow from the egg white and the rest of the sugar into it , which we previously mixed into a stiff foam. This method is more laborious and longer, but the sponge cake is much softer and more substantial, and it is worth it.
In the process of mixing the eggs, I also saw a new style of mixing, where you mix the egg whites with sugar until thick and then add one yolk at a time. After the egg yolks, gently mix in the flour. If you decide to add oil, you add it after the egg yolks.
With the method where the eggs are beaten separately and the egg whites are whipped, it is not very necessary to add baking powder, because the beating will give the eggs bubbles by beating and the sponge cake will also be soft.
Once you decide which method to use, it's important to stick with it and follow it properly if you want to achieve the best version of the sponge cake.
Finally, baking: some bake one sponge at a time in one form and then cut the sponge into two or three parts, but others, including me, bake the dough in two or three forms. When you bake the dough in one form, it takes much longer and the sponge has a harder crust and dries out more. Baking in several forms takes much less time. If you share the batter, it is best to weigh it so that both forms have the same weight and thus they will bake equally and be the same height.
So who wants to know what difference there is in the final sponge cake product depending on whether we added fat or not or whether we mixed the eggs separately? I did, therefore I did an experiment in which I baked a few other praised recipes with a different processing procedure. Check out my recipe videos below. I advise all new bakers to do this experiment. I learnt so much from it! And found my favourite recipe and style.
Amount of ingredients in the recipes:
A frequently used recipe is: we use a spoonful of sugar and two spoonfuls of flour for each egg. Some confectioners weigh the egg and add the same weight of sugar and flour (scallop sponge cake).
For example:
With butter: 1 egg (50g), 50g butter, 50g sugar, 50g flour (baking powder, flavoring and a little milk)
Without butter: 1 egg (50g), 50g sugar, 50g flour (baking powder, flavoring and milk, water or oil)
You can replace the amount of flour with cocoa in each recipe. Choose the amount of cocoa depending on whether you want a lightly cocoa or a full chocolate sponge cake.
A few recipes from abroad and how they differ:
In Asia, some families make sponge cakes in a steamer without an oven. I wonder if it's because some families didn't have an oven and invented something else or because they liked steamed sponge cake better.
In Vietnam, they add mint, lemon or the herb lemongrass to a sponge cake.
In America, they also make sponge cake without yolk. They call this sponge cake angelic.
In Portugal, sponge cake is often made with lemon or orange peel. If something remains from the cake and dries up, they dip it into the pudding.
In England they make a few other versions. Quite popular is the Victoria sponge cake named after Queen Victoria. She loved this sponge cake with raspberry jam. Now they make it with raspberry jam and cream.
So I decided to try a few recipes and see if the procedure makes a big difference in the final result.
If you want to dedicate yourself to baking sponge cakes, I recommend that you try a few other recipes before you decide which one is your favourite. Nowadays, it is fashionable to be different. If you want to be better than your competition, bake a few different sponges before your customer visits you to arrange a cake and let them try it to choose which sponge they likes best.
What we should know before we start baking:
Eggs - not every egg is equal in weight/size. If the recipe calls for small or larger eggs, follow that in the recipe.
In order to mix your meringue well, you need to use a completely clean mixing bowl and whisks. If even a small part of the yolk or fat gets into the egg whites, the snow will not mix well. Always break the eggs into a separate small bowl. If you get a yolk in there, you won't spoil all the egg whites.
Butter and eggs should be at room temperature. They blend much better this way. If you forgot to take the butter out of the fridge, cut it into pieces, it will heat up faster.
Use unsalted or lightly salted butter for baking. There is a huge difference between butter, which is made from milk, and margarine, which is made from vegetable fats. Margarine is cheaper, but try baking a cake with the real butter if you can. However, if you are baking a vegan sponge cake, you can mace it from vegan margarine.
Every oven is a little bit different. When baking the sponge cake, do not open the oven at the beginning. You can open it later when it turns brown, and test with a wooden skewer whether the sponge cake is ready and baked in the middle. If the skewer comes out dry, the sponge cake is ready. If it comes out stuck with the dough, the sponge should be baked longer. After baking few sponges you will become more familiar with your oven.
If you want a sponge cake without a crust on the sides, cover the form with a wet cloth/baking belt. In this way, the sides of the sponge bake more slowly and do not have the same crust as without the cloth. The substance must not be flammable, so that it does not melt or catch fire in your oven!
There are few types of granulated sugar, some have smaller crystals than granulated sugar. The smaller crystals are better for baking, because it melts faster in the batter, but when mixed with butter, its crystals use their power.
My tutorials of recipes I tried:
A simple sponge cake in the style of Queen Victoria of England:
Ingredients:
225g butter (room temperature)
225g of sugar (granulated sugar)
225g plain flour
4 Eggs (Eggs weighed 225g with shell)
2 teaspoons of baking powder (around 6-8g)
A spoonful or two of milk
(if you need a larger sponge cake, you can divide each recipe into an egg and multiply according to how many eggs you need to use)
Process 1 (all at once):
1.
Turn on the oven at 180 degrees, (160 if you have an oven with a fan)
2.
Place the room temperature butter in a large bowl along with all the ingredients. Blend everything until smooth, either with a hand mixer or a robot, for just a few minutes.
3.
Grease two 18 to 20 cm forms with butter and sprinkle with flour. Divide the sponge cake dough evenly into two forms (you can use an ice cream scoop or a scale) (if baking in one form, extend the time of baking)
4.
Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Every oven is a little different. When baking the sponge cake, do not open the oven at the beginning, but when it turns brown after 20 minutes, you can open the oven and use a wooden skewer to check whether the sponge cake is ready. If the skewer comes out dry, the sponge cake is ready. If it comes out stuck to the dough, the sponge cake needs to be baked longer.
If you decide to bake the sponge cake as a whole, you need to double the baking time in the oven.
Process 2:
1.
Turn on the oven at 180 degrees, (160 if you have an oven with a fan)
2.
Place room temperature butter in a large bowl and mix until smooth for about two minutes. Add granulated sugar and mix until the butter is completely smooth (about 10 minutes). The butter should fade and gain volume. If you have a food processor with a butter attachment, use that attachment for rubbing.
3.
Add one egg at a time to the butter and continue mixing. If you put all the eggs in at once, the batter might curdle. When you have mixed the last egg, turn off the mixer.
4.
Pour sifted flour mixed with baking powder into the dough and gently mix with a rolling pin. The flour is already minimally mixed in the sponge cake. If the dough seems too thick, add a spoon or two of milk.
5.
Grease two 18 to 20 cm forms with butter and sprinkle with flour. Divide the sponge cake dough evenly into two forms (you can use an ice cream scoop or a scale).
Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Every oven is a little different. When baking the sponge cake, do not open the oven at the beginning, but when it turns brown after 20 minutes, you can open the oven and use a wooden skewer to check whether the sponge cake is ready. If the skewer comes out dry, the sponge cake is ready. If it comes out stuck to the dough, the sponge should be baked longer.
If you decide to bake the sponge cake as a whole, you need to double the baking time in the oven.
Check out my Queen Victoria sponge cake video where I baked both sponge cakes using these two different methods. Surprisingly, the sponge cakes baked with both styles were delicious and there was not much difference between them. Therefore I would always choose the all in one method as it is much simpler.
Simple sponge with oil:
Ingredients:
225g of sugar (granulated sugar or crystal)
225g plain flour
4 Eggs (Eggs weighed 225g with shell)
100 ml of water
100 ml of oil
(if you need a larger sponge, you can divide each recipe into an egg and multiply according to how many eggs you need to use)
Process 1 (all at once):
1.
Turn on the oven at 180 degrees, (160 if you have an oven with a fan)
2.
Put whole eggs with sugar in a bowl and mix until foamy. Mix everything with either a hand mixer or a robot until you have foam from the eggs.
3.
When the foam is whipped, add water, oil and mix gently.
4.
Add sifted flour and gently mix into the eggs only by hand, not with a mixer.
5.
Grease two 18 to 20 cm forms with butter and sprinkle with flour. Divide the sponge cake dough evenly into two forms (you can use an ice cream scoop or a scale)
6.
Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Every oven is a little different. When baking the sponge cake, do not open the oven at the beginning, but when it turns brown after 20 minutes, you can open the oven and use a wooden skewer to check whether the sponge cake is ready. If the skewer comes out dry, the sponge cake is ready. If it comes out stuck to the dough, the sponge should be baked longer.
If you decide to bake the sponge cake as a whole, you need to double the baking time in the oven.
Process 2:
1.
Turn on the oven at 180 degrees, (160 if you have an oven with a fan)
2.
Put egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and mix until foamy. Mix everything with either a hand mixer or a robot until you have foam from the eggs.
3.
Gently mix the previously prepared snow into the yolk dough. Mix only gently.
4.
Add water and oil
5.
Add sifted flour and mix into the eggs only by hand, not with a mixer.
6.
Grease two 18 to 20 cm forms with butter and sprinkle with flour. Divide the sponge cake dough evenly into two forms (you can use an ice cream scoop or a scale).
Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Every oven is a little different. When baking the sponge cake, do not open the oven at the beginning, but when it turns brown after 20 minutes, you can open the oven and use a wooden skewer to check whether the sponge cake is ready. If the skewer comes out dry, the sponge cake is ready. If it comes out stuck to the dough, the sponge should be baked longer.
If you decide to bake the sponge cake as a whole, you need to double the baking time in the oven.
Process 3:
1.
Turn on the oven at 180 degrees, (160 if you have an oven with a fan)
2.
In a bowl, whip thick snow from egg whites and sugar.
3.
When the snow is beaten, add the yolks, one at a time.
4.
Add water and oil and mix gently.
5.
Add sifted flour and gently mix into the eggs only by hand, not with a mixer.
6.
Grease two 18 to 20 cm forms with butter and sprinkle with flour. Divide the sponge cake dough evenly into two forms (you can use an ice cream scoop or a scale).
Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Every oven is a little different. When baking the sponge cake, do not open the oven at the beginning, but when it turns brown after 20 minutes, you can open the oven and use a wooden skewer to check whether the sponge cake is ready. If the skewer comes out dry, the sponge cake is ready. If it comes out stuck to the dough, the sponge should be baked longer.
If you decide to bake the sponge cake as a whole, you need to double the baking time in the oven.
Simple sponge cake without oil:
Use the same recipe as the sponge cake with oil, but omit the oil. You can also choose one of the methods for preparing sponge cake, as in the recipe with oil.
What is your favourite recipe? Share with us. Thank you.
The best way to colour the body/sponge naturally is with fruit or vegetable puree (natural dyes): strawberry or raspberry for a pink sponge, carrot for an orange sponge, blueberries for a blue sponge, spinach for a green sponge, pomegranate or beetroot for a red sponge and much more more. Watch the video below for such naturally coloured sponges:
* I took the information about the history of sponge cake from the English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponge_cake)
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