Sponge cake | Classic British sponge cake | Basic Vanilla sponge cake
Sponge cake is an all-time favorite classic British baked cake with flour, sugar and vanilla essence. Learn how to bake with both a convection oven and pressure cooker.
A classic sponge cake would be very soft and fluffy with multiple air holes and holds a wonderful flavor. I would say the sponginess comes from the method of preparation of the batter rather than the ingredients themselves. If you are a cake lover or if you have a junior who loves baking products then I would recommend you to invest in a good microwave convection oven to get delicious pastry items fresh and clean from your home itself. Although I baked this Vanilla sponge cake today in my new convection oven, I have given you the method of baking this sponge cake in pressure cooker also.
The other important equipment I used is the electric beater. Again I would say this one is a good investment particularly for cake baking with eggs. If you bake eggless cakes then you can use a hand mixer. This particular sponge cake recipe requires a continuous beating of egg whites hence electric beater is better. But if you don’t have one, then you will have to beat the whites at least for 20-30 mins to get the foamy stage required for air bubbles formation.
In British, this is popularly known as the Victorian sponge cake for the reason that this was the Queen’s favorite breakfast tea cake from the royal kitchen of England. There may be minor variations in the ingredients around the world and here I gave you the basic necessary ingredients and method of making this classic sponge cake with eggs.
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Let us see the detailed video of making this Sponge cake:
Sponge cake | Classic British sponge cake | Basic Vanilla sponge cake
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ cup + ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 4 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 cup oil
Instructions
Preparation:
- Grease cake tin with oil and keep ready.
- Keep all the ingredients readily available.
Recipe to bake vanilla sponge cake:
- Separate whites and yolks from 4 eggs and keep them in different bowls.
- Add a half cup of sugar, a pinch of salt, boiled milk(room temperature) and vanilla essence.
- Whisk everything together and transfer the contents into big mixing bowl if not already.
- Sieve and add all-purpose flour(maida) plus baking powder mix in batches into the bowl.
- Beat into a soft batter without any lumps.
- Now add oil and mix again. Keep aside.
How to beat egg whites:
- Take egg whites in a large bowl with lemon juice. Add remaining sugar gradually and beat in medium speed using an electric beater. You can use a hand mixer also, but it takes more than the specified time to get the right texture.
- Beat for around 15 mins continuously in medium speed to get the fluffy texture as shown in the picture.
- Egg whites with sugar when beaten get a foamy soft mixture.
Sponge cake batter:
- Now add this egg whites mix with yolk and flour mixture slowly and mix gently using a spatula.
- Cut and fold the batter evenly. Don't overdo it.
- Pour the batter into greased pan.
Baking using oven:
- Preheat the oven to 180° Celsius.
- Place the cake tin and bake for 35-40 mins until done.
- Check the doneness by inserting a toothpick. If it comes out clean then the cake is ready.
Baking using the pressure cooker:
- If you do not have an oven, use the pressure cooker to bake the cake.
- Fill one kg salt (crystal or powder) into the base of the pressure cooker. You can use clean sand instead of salt.
- Just heat this salt or sand in the pressure cooker for 20 min (do not pressure cook).
- Now your preheated oven-like cooker is ready to bake.
- Keep a stand/plate, which comes along with cooker, above the hot salt.
- Place the greased cake tin on top of the stand.
- Remove the gasket and pressure weight from the lid of the pressure cooker.
- Close with the lid and bake the cake for 35-40mins. You can check the doneness of the sponge cake in between if you want with a toothpick.
Cooling off and cutting the cake:
- After baking, let the sponge cake cool down for 20 minutes in a cooling tray.
- Cut into required shapes and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Pictorial:
Preparation:
- Grease cake tin with oil and keep ready.
- Keep all the ingredients readily available.
Recipe to bake vanilla sponge cake:
- Separate whites and yolks from 4 eggs and keep them in different bowls.
- Add a half cup of sugar, a pinch of salt, boiled milk(room temperature) and vanilla essence.
- Whisk everything together and transfer the contents into big mixing bowl if not already.
- Sieve and add all-purpose flour(maida) plus baking powder mix in batches into the bowl.
- Beat into a soft batter without any lumps.
- Now add oil and mix again. Keep aside.
How to beat egg whites:
- Take egg whites in a large bowl with lemon juice.
- Add remaining sugar gradually and beat in medium speed using an electric beater. You can use a hand mixer also, but it takes more than the specified time to get the right texture.
- Beat for around 15 mins continuously in medium speed to get the fluffy texture as shown in the picture.
- Egg whites with sugar when beaten get a foamy soft mixture.
Sponge cake batter:
- Now add this egg whites mix with yolk and flour mixture slowly and mix gently using a spatula.
- Cut and fold the batter evenly. Don’t overdo it.
- Pour the batter into greased pan.
Baking using oven:
- Preheat the oven to 180° Celsius.
- Place the cake tin and bake for 35-40 mins until done.
- Check the doneness by inserting a toothpick. If it comes out clean then the cake is ready.
Baking using the pressure cooker:
- If you do not have an oven, use the pressure cooker to bake the cake.
- Fill one kg salt (crystal or powder) into the base of the pressure cooker. You can use clean sand instead of salt.
- Just heat this salt or sand in the pressure cooker for 20 min (do not pressure cook). Now your preheated oven-like cooker is ready to bake.
- Keep a stand/plate, which comes along with cooker, above the hot salt.
- Place the greased cake tin on top of the stand.
- Remove the gasket and pressure weight from the lid of the pressure cooker.
- Close with the lid and bake the cake for 35-40mins. You can check the doneness of the sponge cake in between if you want with a toothpick.
Cooling off and cutting the cake:
- After baking, let the sponge cake cool down for 20 minutes in a cooling tray.
- Cut into required shapes and serve.
Tips/Notes:
1) Always beat egg whites separately to get the foamy soft sponge cake.
2) After preparing the batter, don’t over mix it else the cake may end up being denser and flat. Over mixing will break the air bubbles formed in the egg whites.
3) Baking beyond the required time may yield hard cakes.
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