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 have a question
for the sponge is gelatin really important
and can i just beat the egg whites without the cream of tart tarts are these really important ?
a Tablespoon of baking powder & NOT a teaspoon ?
Hi Kit, Yes it is a tablespoon. An Australian tablespoon is about 3 teaspoons. An US tablespoon is about 4 teaspoons. If you are using a US measurement, the extra teaspoon won’t impact the cake negatively. I have made this recipe countless times and it works a treat.
This recipe is great! However, one problem is the bottom of the cake is concave. 🙁 Why is it so?
Is it because I half the recipe?
Hummm..so fluffy, moist n yummy… Love to try this…thanks for t recipe Ann.
Thanks Saari!
Hie can l substitute water with milk
Hi Sthoe, Ann hasn’t tested that but you are welcome to experiment. The recipe works beautifully with water, so it doesn’t need milk. Be aware that you are adding more sugar and protein to the cake and this might change the texture and taste of the finished cake.
I live at high elevation (7000). Do you know of any adjustments I would need to make? Since moving to a high elevation, I don’t bother baking ( have never had luck), but this cake looks so good. My husband has GERD and should go light on sweets (sponge, angle food). Thanks.
Hi J Ccervenka, Because we are not testing at high elevation it has hard to advise you, though with all high elevation baking we know that cooking can take longer and sometimes batters need to be adjusted. Definitely check that your cake is cooked using the knife method before removing it from the oven as it will take longer. Let us know how it goes as we would love to let people know what is needed.
I will try dis recipe nd give u reply later but trusting god dat dis one will be fluffy thanks
HELLO ann
i can’t really eat gelatine, can i leave it out or should i replace it with something else like agar agar?
Hi Shafeen, If you can’t have gelatine for religious reasons , use halal gelatin which is a vegetable product.
I don’t have plain gelatin but I have a blueberry flavored kind would that. Work with the recipe?
Hi Cameron, That doesn’t sound like gelatin Cameron. It is likely it is a form of jelly or gel. Gelatin is unflavoured.
Hi Ann,
I’m making this next week and I’m only doing half of this recipe and I’m baking it in only one pan. How long do I bake it and do I still bake it at 320 F?
Thank you
Hi Kesey, it will depend on the size of your pan, but as this recipe makes 2 x 20cm cake tins that each cook for around 55-60 minutes. So your single cake should be roughly the same.
Hi Ann,
do I have to use the cream of tartar? I am from Germany and I don’t really know what cream of tartar is or where i can get it…
thank you for all the great videos you are making 🙂
Hi Henriette, This is a standard baking product but it has a couple of different names: Cream of tartar, tartaric acid. It is a white powder that is added to baking soda together with some cornflour to produce baking powder. You will usually find it stores along side baking powder. I am told in Germany it is referred to as Alaun pulver or Weinsteinpulver. You can replace it with lemon juice or vinegar, though these are not quite as effective and sometimes alter the taste of what you are baking.
Hi There,
the taske of the cake was very very nice but the cake deflated whe it comes out of the oven why??
Hi Liza, This cake usually holds it’s shape well. If it went flat then it is likely that one of the following caused the problem: the eggwhites were not mixed to form peaks OR the cream of tartar was left out(or old), the batter was overmixed OR the cake was not cooled in the tin, upside down as per the video tutorial.
Hi Ann,
If I wanted to turn this cake into a lemon cake, would adding lemon zest and juice into the flour, egg, and oil mixture before folding in the egg whites work? Or should I make the sponge cakes, let them cool, and spoon lemon syrup over them? Which method do you think would work better?
Hi Nicole, Ann hasn’t trialled this, so you will just need to experiment. If Ann was going to trial it, she would likely add some zest to the cake and go with the lemon syrup over the top.
Ok! Thank you very much!
Hi Ann,
My question is what is the difference in Sponge Cake and Regular Cake? Also is there a better use for one over the other?
Thanks,
Nana
Hi Nana, Usually a sponge cake has a lighter and more airy texture. Regular cake tends to be denser and has a firmer texture. The best type of cake to use will depend on what you want to do with it and how you want to serve it.
Hi, I’d love to try this yummy looking recipe!!
Can I use 2x 6 inch pan for this recipe?
Thank you!!
Hi Jen, This is a fairly generous recipe. You would find you have heaps of batter for two 6 inch pans. You might even need three. Of ourse you can use them but don’t overfill the pans and just adjust the cooking time appropriately.
Thank you for your prompt reply!!
Would it be better if I halve the recipe for 2x 6 inch pans?? Will I get enough batter to get two tall 6 inch sponge cakes?
Thanks again!! 🙂
Hi,
I was wondering how long I can make this in advance? My sister’s birthday is on Friday and I need it for the penguins of madagasgar cake. How long will it stay ok for?
Thanks
Jemima
Hi Jemima, Cake is always best fresh. You can make it the day before it is required. If you need to make it further in advance, you will need to cover in cling wrap and freeze, then fully defrost before decorating and serving.
I love your recipes and all your videos. You are really genius. I am pure veg so can you please make a video on eggless sponge cake or eggless brownie or just say how do I replace the eggs in your recipe
Hi 😀
I was wondering how long this sponge cake stay moist? I am making a cake for my dad`s birthday so I have to make the cake 2 days in advance. The cake will be covered in fondant if that makes a differense 😀
Hi Malin Hafsjkaer, Sponge cake is always better fresh, though you could make it the day prior and cover with fondant. If you want to make it further in advance, it would be better to cool and freeze the sponge. Then fully defrost before you decorate for service.
can i leave out the cream of tartar for this sponge cake ?.
Hi Zh, the cream of tartar is key to the texture of the sponge cake so its best to use it if you can. The results are far better.
Hi Ann,
Have been looking around for a classic spongy plain cake .scoured through tons of websites.all promising that moist spongy cake but in vain.you go through so much rush and when you see the final product you feel like this is jus one of those cakes you could’ve done it yourselves .which is not a master piece really.
However I must say your recipe is the best.thank u I finally founded my fave recipe
Thanks for the feedback Sammy!
Wow I’m so impressed with how this cake turned out. So light and fluffy, lots of compliments received. Thank you.
That is great to hear Debs.
Hi ann, my daughter Hanah is always watching ur video on YouTube as she likes all the cakes that you make, but anyway just to ask what cream shall I use on the whipping please
Thanks a lot!
Loremie
Hi Loremie, Here is a page that will help you with work out what is the equivalent type of cream in your area: https://wellness-wave1.news/public_html/cream-use/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E