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, I’m wondering if there is anything I would need to adjust for a conventional oven/radiative oven instead of a fan forced oven?
Thanks 🙂
(PS: haven’t tried the recipe yet but needed to put a rating so I went half way)
G’day Abby, fan forced tend to cook a bit faster, so just allow a little longer with conventional.
Hello, I’ve made this cake but unfortunately my egg whites would not peak! There must have been some grease in the bowl. I cleaned it before hand too! I’ve folded them in anyway, they were smooth and bubbly almost. Do you think my cake will be okay?
Hi Sarah, if you get any egg yolk in your whites they will not whip properly. Your cake should still bake fine but the texture will be different – not as airy. ?
Never in my life have I managed to make a cake that hasn’t resembled a pancake.. thank-you so much for this delicious and easy to follow recipe! Finally I have the fluffy, well-risen cake of my dreams!
That’s wonderful news Abbey I’m so glad to hear that you made a great cake ?
What will the cake be like if I don’t use the gelatin?
Hi Rosie, the gelatine is acting as an emulsifier in this recipe ensuring that the water and oil mix together properly and it doesn’t split. If you leave ti out you will still have a nice cake it just won’t have the exact same texture.
Hi Ann,
I have a non-stick 12 1/2″ x 9″ pan that is 2″ high. Can you recommend a correct ingredient quantity for this from your 8×8 round tins?
Thank you,
Kim
Can I bake this in a 9 inch x 13 inch pan?
Hi Cindy, assuming your tray is 1″ tall then 9x13x1 is a volume of 117inches squared. This recipe makes enough batter for two 8″ round cake tins 2″ tall so each has a volume of 3.14x16x2=100. So yes you can bake two of your trays using this recipe.
Hi Ann,
Just wondering can I use 3-6 pans instead of 2-7 inch pans???
Thanks =)
***6 INCH pans instead of 7 inch pans ………….=)
Hi Donna
Volume= π x radius squared x height
volume of each of your 6″ pans if they are 1″ tall
v = 3.14 x 9 x 1 = 28.26 inches squared per 6″ round pan
3 (three pans) x 28.26 = 84.78 inches squared total volume
This recipe makes enough for two 8″ pans
volume of one 8″ pans that is 1″ tall
V=π x r squared x h
v=3.14 x 16 x 1 = 50.24
so two pans = 2 x 50.24 = 100.48 inches squared
So there is more than enough batter for three 7″ pans ?
Hi Ann
Why do you add gelatin to your sponge cake recipe? Never heard of that before!
Chan Duguid
Hi Chan,most commercial cakes have emulsifier added to help the oil and water combine. As commercial emulsifiers are not available to buy in store I used gelatine for that purpose.
Hi Ann, This recipe sounds just what I need for large birthday cake, can you advise on quantities for two 11″ cake tins.
Thanks Viv
hi viv, 11″ round tins assuming that stye are 2″ tall have a volume of 3.14×30.25×2= 190inches squared. This recipe makes two 8″ cakes which is a total volume of 2(3.14x16x2)= 200inches squared. So to make two 11″ round tins you’d need to double the recipe.
Could you please tell me how long to cook double the recipe in 11 inch tins and for how long? Many thanks.
Hi Ann,
Just wondering how could i alter this recipe to make it a lemon sponge? I really want to make it for my birthday but i am very anxious about getting it right.
Thank you in advance.
From,
Jessica
My birthday is in march but i want to make a test batch of it earlier than that.
My sponge cake shrunk in the tin once it cooled down. I did turn tin upside down but the sides shrunk it and it deflated in height. Do you have any tips to avoid this?
Hi, can we use vegetarian gelatin for the recipe?
You could just use agar agar
Hi Jessica, agar agar has quite different properties to gelatine, you’d need to experiment with it.
Hi Sana, I have not experimented with that so you’ll have to give it a try ?
Can we use nonstick pan without greasing but just lining parchment paper? Will it fall down when leaving to cool upside down?
Thank You!
ROSE
Hi Rose, I only use non-stick pans and generally the cakes do not fall, except when the pans are very new. I do position the cake tin upside down over 2 upturned cups, so that the cup bases prevent the cake from accidently sliding out.
What’s your opinion on using pasteurized edd whites?
Hi Bab, I personally would not use them for baking. You can’t get the fluffy stiff egg whites that you are after in recipes like this one.
Hi, I want to make this in advance of my daughter birthday, is it suitable for freezing and how would you advise to defrost 24 hours before the birthday party please? Thanks.
Hi Alison, the plain undecorated sponge cakes can be frozen. Once cooked and fully cooled, completely cover each cake with plastic wrap and then store in an airtight bag. You will need to fully defrost the cakes before you assemble and decorate.
Ann I want to know why using gelatin. Thank you. Lovely cake recipe.
Hi Lynette, it helps maintain the light and fluffy texture of the cake.
I don’t like jam, is there something I can substitute that for?
Of course, You can use cream or fondant or any other filling you prefer that won’t soak to heavily into the cake.
Thank you
Hello Ann, I love baking and cake decorating and Ive tried many of your recipes (the Instagram cake was a hit!) and I must emphasize that they are so perfectly written. the most recent one I tried was the perfect sponge cake recipe which came out really spongy! However, id like to ask if I want to make a similar spongy chocolate cake, what would be the ingredients? could I simply replace some of the flour with cocoa powder? or add some cocoa powder to the perfect sponge cake recipe ? and if so, how much to add? appreciate hearing from you on this. and thanks again for sharing all your super recipes!
Hi Clementine, Ann is not a fan of chcolate sponges because they just don’t have a great chocolately flavour. She prefers to use this recipe when making a chocolate cake: https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/chocolate-cake-recipe/
Can I substitute the vegetable oil for light olive oil? or will that just ruin it?
Hi Danny, Olive oil (even light olive oil) has a distinct flavour which you can taste when cooked, that is why it is not recommended here.
Ann, I made this cake yesterday for my son’s birthday and I was so pleased with it. I always thought sponge cakes were difficult – thinking back to my grandmother turning out perfect sponges in her wood oven and the recipe she never shared – but this was so quick and easy I won’t hesitate to make it again. I think even grandma would have been impressed. Thank you.
Thanks Sharyn for the lovely feedback.
Hello Ann, I am getting ready to make my cakes but wondered if you had ingredient quantities for other sized tins?
I’ll be using a 4”, a 7”, and a 10”
Thank you so much
Christina – UK