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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Hi Ann
Sorry one more question do you think I cud get the same result using butter instead of oil??
Hi Cody, no the result will differ slightly.
Hi just wanted to know how long this cake would keep with butter frosting?
Hi Jenny, Cakes a best fresh. Once frosted they should be kept in a cool place and consummed within a day or two.
Hi Ann
Cud you tell me how much 320grams are in cups in the U.K. please? And do we have to use that much eggs seems like too much to me??
Hi Cody, The eggs are the perfect quantity to create the perfect sponge. Try it and then if you are not happy with the texture you can adjust as you see fit. Sponges always use more eggs. The cups are given in the recipe – 2 cups. The imperial measurements are close enough that you can use the measurements given or use ounces if you prefer.
I was wondering why you would use gelatin in the recipe?
Hi T,
This has been spoken to in many of the comments below. It may seem unusual but it helps to stablize the cake and keep the texture moist. Most sponges crumble very easily but you will find this one is great.
Can I bake this in one 9 inch round cake pan?
Hi Min, It will be way to big.
Sorry second question could you not turn cake upside down onto a cake cooler? Bit nervous might fall out of tin as mine are non stick pans.
Hi Cheryl, YOu could but the idea is to suspend the cake to help keep it full and fluffy. Putting it onto a cooler will cause the weight of the cake to flatten it a little. The first time I did it I used new cake pans and the cake fell out! Now I position the cake tray over two cups or glasses in such a way that that it holds the edge of the cake in the tin.
Hi just checking the sugar is regular white sugar not caster sugar?
Hi Cheryl, Use caster sugar for best results.
I would like to try the recipe as it looks delicious! What will I add if I’m making chocolate sponge cake? Thanks in advance! Happy baking!
Hi Alpha, Ann recommends using her rich chocolate cake recipe instead: https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/chocolate-cake-recipe/
Hi there, I just baked a 1 1/2 batch across 2 24cm square tins poured to the same depth. One came out perfect and fluffy, best sponge I’ve ever made, the other, the bottom of the cake was denser and overall didn’t rise as well. I think it could be one of two things and curious for your insight. The one that didn’t work was on the middle tray and hadn’t browned as much as the one on the top tray so potentially needed another 5 mins though the cake tester came out clean. Or the fact that I lined the base of the tray so when I turned it over it was not attached to the bottom of the pan and therefore fell in on itself. What are your thoughts?
Hi Sonia, without seeing the cake, it sounds like it is the variation in your oven temperature. I have the same problem with my oven as even though it is fan forced and supposed to be even in temp, the temp can vary. This will be exacerbated if you placed one tin above the other as it actually shields the top of the lower tin from some of the heat. I would try cooking the tins side by side in the oven or off setting them on the shelves so the warm air circulates more effectively around them.
Is it possible to divide the recipe in half? I only have one 9 inch cake pan.
Also, would the cake rise if the pan is non-stick?
Yes, the cake will rise regardless. With newish non-stick pans you may find the cooling cakes will slip out of the pans when inverted. just position the cups or glasses you are resting the upturned cake tin on, in such a way that the cakes can’t slip out.
Hi Angela, you could but having made this many times it would be worth grabbing another pan!
Can I make this recipe in one round cake pan? what size cake pan should it be?
HI Min, this was a hemisphere pan about 9 inches in diameter.
Absolutely delicious! I baked this cake last night for the first time, it’s the best sponge cake I ever had! Thanks Ann
Our pleasure Lindy. Thanks for the feedback.
Is flipping it upside down nessasary or can I skip that step ??
Hi Espe, It helps get a great result. You could skip it but I do it every time I can. If I am making a sheet cake or cupcakes with this recipe I don’t do it because it isn’t practical.
will this recipe work with a 26 cm tin also? Thanks, Charl.
Hi Charl, Yes it will, though the finished cake won’t be as tall.
Hi Ann!
I tried this cake and loved it, super fluffy and moist. I tried it again multiplying the recipe by 6 for a large get together and something went wrong. I ended up with a fluffy cake on top and a gummy layer at the bottom with some hard lumps. I followed everything the same as the first time, not sure what went wrong. Should I strain the batter before folding in the whites? thanks!
Hi Arielle, Did you try making this as one large cake? or stack smaller cakes. It sounds like the mixture was improperly mixed and somehow you ended up with gelatine at the bottom. I have made larger cakes with this recipe and have never had this problem. Mak esure you sift your dry ingredients well. If you wish to make a larger cake, bake a double batch in a flat tray. Make as many of these as you need and stack to creat your cake.
I made this recipe last weekend for a strawberry dessert and it turned out perfect! I did however only had one cup of all-purpose flour, so I substituted 1 cup of cake flour and I would not change a thing. This will be my go-to sponge cake from now on….thanks so much for this recipe. Will
awesome.
Arrg! I just weighed the ingredients out and AFTER I mixed in the sugar I realized that 320 grams of flour is a lot more than 20 cups. Which amount is correct?
I meant 2 cups of flours, definitely not 20! I’ve made the cake anyway. Volume estimates of flour are always troublesome. It came out fine! Very good actually! I had been smitten with the idea of a Victoria sponge and they were utter failures (tough, dry). This is delicious. My layers do have some odd marks from falling out of their tins while drying upside down. Also, because I wanted a butter flavor, I browned 1/4 cup of butter and used 1/4 of oil.
Hi Andi, We use Australian cups so 320gms is about right.
Hi, how many inches in height is each cake layer? I love the cake recipe by the way!
Hi Rhi, when I cook this in 2 9 inch pans, I get great height – 7cm on the edges aand taller in the centre
Hi Ann, would this mix be suitable to cook between 3 tins instead of 2?
Thanks
Robyn
Hi Robyn, You can share this mixture across 3 tins if you wish.
A lovely moist cake. Thank you .
THat is great to hear Pat.
This is the best cake I have ever had or made ? it is so light and delicious !!! Thankyou
Wonderful, thanks for your feedback Coll ?