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Sponge cake | Classic British sponge cake | Basic Vanilla sponge cake

Sangskitchen
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 a pressure cooker.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine British, Mediterranean
Servings 20 pieces
Calories 300 kcal

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

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.

Nutrition

Calories: 300kcal
Keyword British sponge cake, Classic sponge cake, English sponge cake, Fluffy sponge cake, How to bake soft sponge cake, How to bake soft sponge cake in cooker, Sponge cake, Vanilla sponge cake, Victorian sponge cake
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