Ann Reardon

Perfect Sponge Cake Recipe: Light Fluffy Moist and Tall

victoria sponge cake recipe how to cook that
 

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.

tall moist fluffy sponge cake recipe reardon
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

© All Rights Reserved Reardon Media PL 2013

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

1,190 Comments View Comments

  1. Great cake! I was wondering could I use this type of cake for a mouse cake base? Anyone?
    Thank you

  2. What do you think is quick and easy for a birthday party? Please help me, I don’t know what to make for a party!

    • I thought it was fairly easy. Decorating it is something you can feel free to experiment with. I posted a picture with my review. Whipped cream and strawberries were my choice for decor. Good luck!

  3. Hi Ann i am new to your site jt looks amazing, i tried the sponge cake with the gelatine in and allthough it is light and fluffy and tasty it turned out very pale do you think i did something wrong? also why does the recipe call for more sugar than flour? i am planning on doing the hello kitty cake for my grandaughters birthday in august what sponge recipe do you advise for this please thanx Gina

    • Hi Gina, this cake should be fine for that. The colour probably depends on the colour of the egg yolks.

      • Thankyou for your quick reply Anne:) i cant wait to bake and cover the hellokitty cake i am going to have ago at the italian miringue frosting recipe that you have on here i have bought a candy themometer if the cake turns out ok i will post a pic i am not doing it untill augast though i love looking through all your recipes:)

  4. Hi Ann is it necessary to include gelatine?

    • hi forida, the gelatin acts as an emulisfier in this recipe, you can leave it out but I prefer with it in.

  5. Hi Ann, I am really enjoying your website, I tried the microwave Lemon Curd and the Dulce de Leche recipe with optimal results. Your sponge cake looks really worth making, could you specify the size of cake tin one should be using ? Thankyou in advance.

    • Hi Girasol, my tins are 20cm in diameter

      • Hi Ann, do you think my cake would still be as tall as your cake if I used two 9″ cake tins or do you think it will be a bit shorter.

        • see above answer :De

  6. Hi, Ann I am new in your website and your spong cake was my first trial. I cooked it and everybudy love and enjoy it. It is agreat spong cake recipe. Thanks alot for sharing.

    Laleh

    • thanks for the feedback laleh

  7. I tried this its the best sponge cake will it be ok to cover with fondent ty ann?

    • hi beth, I wouldn’t use this soft a cake with fondant

  8. Hi Ann,

    I’ve been following your really interesting blog for months now. You are very generous sharing all your tips and tutorials.
    Please could you tell me why you add gelatine to the sponge? I’d like to avoid gelatine as I’m vegetarian.

    Radhika

    • HiRadhika the gelatin acts as an emulsifier in this recipe, you could use xanthum gum instead.

  9. hi
    May I ask what kind of cream it is that you used? I live in Australia and there’s double cream and thickened cream and pouring cream. Which one do you think would be suitable?

    • Hi Shirley I am in Australia too. Thickened cream is just normal cream with a tiny bit of gelatin so that it looks thicker when you dollop it onto desserts. Either pouring cream or thickened cream are fine for whipping. Double cream is also fine but is a lot more expensive and not needed for this.

  10. hi ann if I wanted to make this cake in a 30cm square tin how many batches do I need to make?.. and can the cake be covered with fondent ty ann …

    • Hi Lisa, this cake is too fluffly and light to be covered in fondant. Each of my cake tins are 20cm diameter by 4cm high so has a volume of 1256 cubic cm, but it makes two cakes so double that is 2512 cubic cm. A 30cm square cake tin, assuming it is also 4cm tall has a volume of 3600 cubic cm so you’d need about one and half batches.

      • Hello,
        I have been perusing your site for a few weeks now. I am planning on making you Thomas the Train 3D cake, but we are not chocolate lovers. One of the comments on that page said to use this sponge cake for it. But I see here there a few comments that say the fondant is too heavy for this cake. Do you have a vanilla cake recipe you would recommend for such a cake. I am starting baking 06/02/2016.
        Thank you. Jessica

  11. Hi! Ann,
    Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe. Although if you can share an eggless version of both classic Vanilla and Chocolate SPONGE cake, would Love it… 🙂
    Am allergic to Eggs and often unable to try those recipes where in eggs are used. Just a humble request every time you make something in which eggs are used kindly provide an alternative for vegan people or people with allergies…
    Will be looking forward to an early positive response… 🙂

    • in order to replace the eggs, u might want to use flax seed mix with water
      this will creates the same results as the eggs

  12. I made this yesterday it turned out beautiful thank you ann … more cake recipes will be great ..

  13. Hi Ann,

    I have an interesting request for you.. My mum has been making me a black forest cheesecake ever since I my 16th birthday. Now I know that it has a chocolate biscuit base, uses marachino (?? spelling??) uses 2 pkts cream cheese, kirsch (cherry liqueuer) but other than that not too sure. It is layered. Choc biscuit base, the cherries (with gelatine) then the chocolate cheesecake layer.

    So I would love a black forest cheesecake recipe.

    Thanks and many blessings

    Tracey

  14. You always come through for me.

  15. Oh my God! That looks amazing and I bet it tastes heavenly.
    Tomorrow is my dad’s birthday and I really want to try this out.
    Thank you for this lovely recipe!

    • And the picture 😀

      • Yummm, great job 🙂

        • Thank you 🙂

      • Now that looks delicious! Clever you!

        • Thank you! It was absolutely tastylicious 🙂

  16. Hi Ann,

    I was wondering if I could use agar agar instead of the gelatine?
    I have agar agar powder, how much should I use if it’s possible?

    And is there a substitute for the cream of tartar? Can I leave it out?
    I live in the Netherlands and cream of tartar is a unknown product here…

    Thanks!

    Xxx Aicha

    • Hi Aicha, the gelatine is acting as an emulsifier in this recipe. You could try leaving both out but it will not be as soft.

    • hoi aicha,
      in nederland kan je cream of tartar kopen bij taart winkels of bij de toko het kan ook onder de naam wijnsteenpoeder NIET de zuur

    • Hi,

      I used the same amount of agar agar powder and it turned out fantastic so I would say you can use it 😉

      And you can order cream of tartar online in dutch baking shops, I use those aswell. http://www.deleukstetaartenshop.nl/funcakes-wijnsteen-100-gr

  17. Hi Ann,

    Can I skip the gelatin or replace it with something else?

    Thanks.

    • hi sonia the gelatin acts as an emulsifier stopping the liquid and fat from separating you can leave out I just find it better with it in.

      • can I use agar agar instead of gelatin ? thank u.

        • Yes you can Cisanne commented on this further up she swapped equal amount and loved it.

  18. Hi ann, thanks for the great recipe, can’t wait to try it 🙂 can I just ask what the purpose of the gelatine in the recipe is?? Thanks!

    • Hi sil, the gelatin acts as an emulsifier stopping the fat and liquid from separating

  19. hi ann just wanted to know do I have to had gelatine?.. ty

    • hi lisa, you can leave it out but I prefer the result with it in

  20. Im going to try this today ty ann

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