Perfect Sponge Cake Recipe: Light Fluffy Moist and Tall
The perfect sponge cake should be light, fluffy, moist, tall, soft on the edges and of course beautiful. Easy with the right recipe, painfully frustrating with all of the rest. After testing many, many sponge cake recipes my kids got tired of taking sponge cake in their lunch boxes to school. So I gave them a break for a while. When I came back to it I retested the best ones but was still not satisfied, I tried a heap more that instead of using different amounts of the key ingredients used different methods of combining them. Eventually I tweeked a few of the best ones to come up with this light, fluffy and beautifully moist sponge cake recipe. My favorite.
Sponge Cake Recipe Ingredients
2 cups or 320g (11.29 ounces) plain all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups or 327g (11.53 ounces) sugar
1 Tbsp or 3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp or 7.5g (0.26 ounces) gelatin (powdered)
1/2 cup or 125ml vegetable oil such as canola oil
7 egg yolks or 105g (3.7 ounces)
1 cup or 250millilitres (8.45 fluid ounces) cold water
7 egg whites or 252g (8.89 ounces)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
To decorate:
1 punnet or 250g (8.82 ounces) or approx 1 2/3 cups strawberries,
600millilitres (20.29 fluid ounces) cream (35% fat),
2 Tbsp icing (powdered) sugar,
1 tsp vanilla essence
(recipe source: adapted from this recipe)
Preheat the oven to 320F (160 degrees Celsius) if using a fan forced oven.
Place your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and gelatin into a bowl and whisk it to incorporate air and get rid of any lumps.
Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture then pour in the oil, egg yolks and water in that order. Set that bowl to one side.
Put your egg whites and cream of tartar into another bowl and whisk on high speed until you get soft peaks.
Mix together the flour mixture for 30 seconds only or until just combined, don’t over-mix this.
Using a spatula fold in your egg whites in three batches.
Line but do not grease two 20cm (7.87 inches) cake tins and spread the mixture evenly between the two.
Bake in a slow oven, 320F (160 degrees Celsius) for 55-60 minutes.
When it is done leave in the tin and cool upside down.
See the video for how to decorate your sponge cake.
or try the ombre or rainbow cake decorating tutorials
by Ann Reardon How To Cook That
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I am trying this recipe I can’t wait!!!!!! I just wondering how many this recipe serves and why I can grease cake tins? Please answer I love you!!!!!!
Hi Phoebe, if you grease the sides of the tin it will fall out when you turn it upside down 😀 How many it serves depends on how big you like your slices, usually a round cake like this is 8-10 slices
Hi Ann!
Im doing a cake and coffee morning for Marie Curie charity on Friday and would like to make a head start on the baking side. Is it possible to freeze/refrigerate this cake for a day or two?
Thanks!!
Bonnie
Hi Bonnie, yes you can if you wrap the plain cake well and then defrost and decorate. But as with all cakes they are best when fresh
What is the function of gelatin in your sponge cake receipe
Thanks
Hi Seema, it is acting as an emulsifier in this recipe
Hi Ann, I love your recipes and i was just wondering how long it would take to bake this recipe into cupcakes? please reply asap 🙂
Hi Ann, I love all your recipes and whenever I get sick it always cheers me up to stay inside and watch all your YouTube videos and your blog. I’ve made this cake for my birthday party but I was wondering, how do I make it into cupcakes? Since they’ll be in papers they can’t be cooled upside-down and is there a different temperature I should cook them at? Thank you and I hope your day, week, month, and year are going well!!!
Hi Kayala, bake at the same temp and do not turn upside down for cupcakes.
If i wanted the sponge to be pink, would i add the color to the egg whites? If so would i do that after they are at soft peaks or during the mixing process?
i would add colouring to the flour mixture
Hi Ann,
I want to thank you for all good recipes and for all efforts, I wish you a good luck
Ammal
🙂
yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love all your recipes, you are amazing! Ann!!!
I v tried almost everything you display here and were all successes, thanks you, Ann! I am actually a very beganner, I found your recipes are very easy to follow! For the sponge cake, I have tried many many recipes, and yours are the best! It’s beautiful and super fluffy, easy to decorate! My kids love it so much! So appreciated your work! And always looking forward your new ideas!
OoooooooBtw, for this recipe,can I put less sugar?!
Could I use this cake recipe as a tres leches cake?
What is that cream of tartar
The package looks like baking powder it’s just brownish in colour. It’s probably a stabiliser I use it in marshmellow frosting too.cake will turn out still good but I think it’s there for a reason anyway you will find it in the cake isle with the baking powder etc good luck
It’s used along with baking soda to make baking powder, and in this case it acts as a stabilizer for the egg whites. You can also use a drop of lemon juice instead.
What would happen if I don’t use cream of tartar?
it won’t be quite as fluffy
Hello, I must say that this is the best sponge cake ever. However I had one problem. While I had my cake upside down cooling, it feel out of the pan 🙁 I did not grease as you said and only put a piece of parchment paper. The middle of the cake fell out the pan and the sides remained :s Any tips as to avoid this. But I really do love this recipe!
It just happened to me too ??????
Hi Mandy does your cake tin have straight sides or on an angle? I think people with angled tins seem to be having problems, so perhaps leave it the right way up.
Hi Ann.
I was just wondering if you can add flavors to this cake and cover it with buttercream and fondant for a birthday type cake?
Sarah
yes fondant will be fine with this cake as long as its not a huge cake
Hi I was just wondering if this recipe could be made in a glass bowl as I need a dome shape
Hi Ann,
Is it possible to leave out the gelatine or replace it with something suitable for a vegetarian diet?
Thanks,
Tammy 🙂
..just saw you already answered that kind of question 🙂
Hi Ann,
I made your cake for many times and it was a perfect sponge cake but recently without any changes, it is not rise as previous and the result is not perfect as past. As I did not change anything so I totally confused why I cannot have same good results as past?
Cheers Laleh
You may need to replace your ingredients. I was having the same problem not 2 weeks ago, I asked a baker and she said that if my ingredients were’t very fresh, this could make my cakes/cupcakes not rise.. I switched everything out and she was right:) Hope that helps:)
Hi ~ may I ask, whether i can use half water, half milk ?
yes you can do that
Hi Ann!
My name is Monika and I want to make a cake for my friend’s birthday. So I decided to use your sponge cake recipe and for the filling I’m using your Strawberry Mousse Recipe. But I don’t know what to cover it with…or how to decorate it… do you have any suggestion? I really like your website and all of your recipes so I would be really happy if you replied 🙂
-Monika
Hello ann, thank you for sharing your knowlegde with us and also this amazing recipe. Just wanted to know, what measurment of lemon juice can i use, as substitute to the cream of tartar.
2′ could i also use this recipe for the chocolate version, how many grams of flours will i add or remove to include the cocoa powder?
Thank. You.