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
© All Rights Reserved Reardon Media PL 2013
My Cookbook
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All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.
Hi Ann, I need to make this into a bigger cake. A 11″x11″x11″ sqaure cake. Do I double the recipe? And do u think i shd still cool the cake upside down? Im worried it would fall out due to the weight.
Hi Colene, That is a very large tin. It would be better to make shallower layers of cake, rather than try to cook a larger one. You would need about double the quantity, but cook it as at least 3 seperate cakes. Adjust cooking time as needed You are right that the weight may be too much to turn this cake over for cooling. When I bake this mix in the round tin, the batter rises over the rim of the tin and this helps to hold it in as it cools upside down.
Hi Ann,
Thanks so much for posting this recipe. It has turned out wonderfully. You are awesome! Quick question: if I make cupcakes out of this recipe, is there any way to ensure that they are as moist as this cake? Can I turn them upside down in their cases, like you do to this cake in the tin? Or is that really silly? Thanks in advance!
Hi Manoja, Ann just leaves the cupcakes as they are. It is too tricky to turn them upside down!
These recipes are the best, I can’t stop watching the videos and thinking about when I can use them! Thanks Ann!
Hi Ann. I made this cake for a party last night and it was incredibly light and delicious. I actually made the cake over a week ago and froze it until I needed to decorate it (with fondant). It freezes beautifully and comes out moist and fluffy. Thank you for yet another great recipe.
Thanks for the feedback Nava.
What kind of gelatine did you use?
Hi Lyne, Ann used powdered gelatin.
Hi Ann, I want to try your recipe. Looks so delish. May I know the height of one layer? I want to make a few layers that makes 10cm high. Also does this recipe keep for 2-3 days? There will be buttercream filling & covering it. Thanks so much.
Hi Anastasia, an uncut cooked cake would be about 4cm tall. These cakes are best eaten fresh but will keep for a 2 days.
Hi, can I use this in one large cake tin instead of using 2?
Hi Sam, It would be difficult to cook this evenly as one very large cake. It would be likely that it would be overcooked on the outside and raw in the middle. It is much better to cook it in two tins. Each cake is generous in size and it makes it easier for decorating amd assembling the cake afterwards.
Hi, is it possible to make this cake suitable for diabetics? my sister’s birthday is coming up and i’d like to do something special for her.
hi nyasha, Making a cake suitable for diabetics is difficult because it is not just about the amount of sugar but the glycaemic index of all the ingredients.
If I want to half the recipe, how many eggs would I put it in? 3 or 4? Someone please answer I need to bake this by friday for someone’s birthday. . . Any replies and opinions are greatly appreciated.
-Masha
Hi Masha, 3 large, 4 small. or 4 medium
Hi anne,
i made this but the inside was hollow why?
Hi Jeff, that is a very good question and not one I’ve ever had with a cake. Do you mean it has sunk in the middle after taking it out of the oven? If so it was not yet done.
Hi.. just wondering is the gelatine important in this recipe? What kind do u use? Powder?
Hi Kris, The gelatine is key to the texture of this cake. It is a stabilizer. Ann uses powdered gelatine for this recipe.
yeah its important for texture! And she definently uses powder find it near gelatine and pudding!
Hi absolutely luv your sponge recipe and best ever choc cake recipe thank you so much x was wondering do you have a carrot cake recipe you would recommend ! Many thanks xx
Hi Annmarie, Ann has a good carrot cake recipe. She used it as the base for this cake: https://wellness-wave1.news/public_html/star-wars-cake/%3C/a%3E .
Thank you Ann for showing me how to make this beautiful sponge cake! I took one cake to school with your fresh cream recipe and strawberry’s for the teachers and its a big hit! At my moms work too! They said it was the best that they have ever tasted, so i sent them to your website and channel. Thank you so much Ann!
Hi Ann, I have tried your recipe using plain flour and its soft and fluffy. If I use self-raising flour, do I need to add more baking powder and will it affect the texture of sponge cake.
Hi Ag, You could potentially use Self Raising flour and reduce the Baking powder, but the result is far better using the recipe as is.
is the sponge supposed to shrink after baking.?
Hello!
Can I use this cake recipe for cup cakes?
Thank you.
Angelica
Hi Angelica, Yes you can. This quantity makes about 24 cupcakes.
Hi Anne, my sponge cake falls after cooling down and is curved at the bottom from being upside down. Is that the way its supposed to be?
Hi Sabrina, Usually this problem would be a sign that the cake isn’t quite cooked. Leave it in the oven a little longer. If you don’t already test to see if the cake is cooked through, you can insert a skewer or similar into the cake centre. It should come out clean when the cake is cooked.
Hi Ann, can I substatute the gelatain for something else in all your recipes, because I can’t find any gelatain where I live (Swansea, Wales, UK) and I am halal so…..
Hi Misaal, You could use Halalgel gelatin. This appears to be readily available in the UK or you can order it online.
Hi Ann,what type of gelatin you use?? Thank you
Hi Nitaya, Ann uses standard powdered gelatin for this recipe.
This recipe looks good, but there seems to be a mistake in the recipe. Flour 2 cups = 300g, sugar 1 1/2 cups = 330g….sugar in grams is more than the cups of flour 2 cups = 300g. So is sugar 330g or 1 1/2 cups?
Sugar is more dense that flour,
so 1 cup of sugar will weigh more than 1 cup of flour.
Hi Lisa, There is no mistake. Sugar is heavier than flour. one cup of sugar will weigh more than 1 cup of flour.