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.
What about if I need to increase the quantity to fit 10 inch cake pan
Hi Mariam, as this recipe is fairly generous you could use the quantities provided knowing that the cakes will not be as high, OR you could up your ingredient quantities. You will need about 1 and half times the quantities given.
can i refrigerate the cake, since it has gelatine in it? will it be hard?
hi ann, your cooking is amazing! i was reading the instructions and it said turn oven to 320F (160 degrees Celsius) if using a fan forced oven. what if there is a normal gas oven what the temp. will be? it seem like gas oven is not as hot as electric oven for some reason that is why the cake concave easily, don’t u think? and if i want to cut in half the recipe will it be ok?
thanks
Hi Tori, If you want to halve the recipe it would be best to bake 1 tin instead of 2. You may need to check your oven temperature to see if it is operating properly. An oven thermometer can usually be obtained from a supermarket. You might find your oven temp is actually lower than the your temperature gauge suggests. You can also find that some ovens have a hot or cold spot in the oven, so cookies on a sheet will overcook in one corner and undercook elsewhere. Once you know your oven’s temperatures you can work around them. If your oven temperature is below what it should be you could increase the temp when baking etc.
Hey Ann! I made your strawberry cake for my mom’s birthday and it was sooo delicious! But my sponge cake didn’t turn out nearly half as tall as yours… What did I do wrong? I followed the recipe very carefully so why didn’t it rise as much as in the video? It still tasted wonderful and was fun to make- thanks for your website and YouTube channel I love your recipes!!
Love from Germany,
Fiona
Hi Fiona, It is difficult to know what went wrong when we cant see what you did. This recipe is very consistently good, though it is worth checking that your eggs were fresh and that your baking powder is not out of date. If it is mixed properly and baked through it should make 2 good sized sponges.
just wondering if there’s a reason you don’t add any vanilla or flavoring? The cake turned out perfect, but just missing a bit of flavor.. so I’m just wondering if this is just traditional to not add it?
Hi Becca, The idea is this is a base recipe that you can adjust to suit your purpose. If you add vanilla it would be a vanilla sponge. It just depends on what you plan to do with it in the end.
I love this recipe,but I’m have trouble with the temperature! The recipe says F, but I can only do C (fan forced)!
Please help!
Hi Kitty, bth F and c should appear on your page but just in case, cook your cake at 160c.
Hi Ann,
I’ve made this recipe several times now and it comes out perfectly everytime. I’m now on the hunt for a chocolate sponge cake that works just as well. Do you have a recipe? Thank you!
Hi September, Ann has a great chocolate cake recipe: https://wellness-wave1.news/public_html/chocolate-cake-recipe/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hi Ann!
Could you please mention the equivalent of the Tbsp and tsp in grams? In Europe we hardly use spoons for measurements and I am not sure whether the spoons sold are English or US spoons.
Thank you !
Hi Ann, I live in the Netherlands and here we only have gelatin leaves, and no powder, do you have any tips on how to incorporate the gelatin leaves in this recipe? We do also have agar-agar, so I could use that. Will it then be the same measurements? I hope you’ll answer soon, I actually am planning to make the coca cola cake tomorrow! Looking forward to making it and hearing from you! Mette
i have never used the gelatin powder and i’ve done this recipe a million of times. it looks and tastes delicious without it (i didnt use it because i forgot it, not because i couldn’t get it) hope it works for you too!
Hi Mette, You could leave out the gelatin but it won’t hold it’s shape and texture so well. Try looking for halal gelatine which is a vegetarian alternative.
Hi Ann. Do I need to grind the sugar for this recipe or will granulated sugar do?
Hi Bhavana, Ann recommends using caster sugar or superfine sugar for this recipe.
such a lovely cake i must try , n i ll say as a good beaker u r a good person too 🙂
I am not very good at decorating, but it tasted delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Evelyn, Your cake looks so delicious. I would love a slice right now with a good cup of tea!
Hie. I have been trying all sorts of vanilla sponge recipes. I will try yours and let you know. Thanks for decorating tips I prefer naked cakes too
Hey Ann! I have a few questions.
1. Why does this recipe use 7 eggs? I made a similar variety of this recipe and only used 4 eggs. Was wondering if I could cut the number of eggs and what role they play in this recipe. Maybe increase the baking powder used?
2. For 2 cups of flour, isn’t the standard amount of leavening 2 tsp of baking powder. If there’s too much leaveners, won’t the cake just collapse when it’s out of the oven?
3. Can I use milk in this recipe?
Sorry for asking so much and hope you’ll spare some time to help me. Much appreciated!!
Hi Clement, Ann has tested and retested these quantities to produce the best cake. If you adjust the quantities you wont get the same cake. This recipe makes two good sized cakes to create a 2 layer finished cake. Hence the eggs required . A single sized standard sponge will use 3-4 eggs as well. The gelatine in this cake stabilises the sponge to help it keep its shape and texture. We recommend you try the recipe first and then if you think for your needs the quantities need to be adjusted then experiment to work out what suits your needs. I have made this cake many times and it my goto and all time favourite recipe for a lightly fluffy but stable sponge that lasts well.
Hi Ann, The first time I made the cake with this recipe it domed quite a bit but otherwise tasted and looked amazing. The second time however, it domed and had massive air tunnels! I’ve tried to reduce the air bubbles by running a knife through the batter and tapping the pan on the counter before putting it in the oven, but still i didn’t quite get same results as the first time. What do you think went wrong?
Hi Zee, if you are sure the recipe was followed then this problem shouldn’t occur. Perhaps check your quantities and ensure that it is mixed sufficiently. I have used this recipe many times and have never had this problem so it is likely something was out of proportion.
Does this sponge cake freeze well? Is it possible to make and assemble this cake, and then freeze it for the following week? I have a lot of cooking to do, and I was hoping to do as much as I can ahead of time.
Hi Evelyn, The undressed sponge freezes well.
I m going to try this recipe very soon
hi Anne I made this cake and baked it in a tray instead, it rose perfectly …but after cooling went a bit flat and dense I did cool upside down could you please tell me were I may have gone wrong
Hi Najiah, There are a couple of possibilities, but is sounds like it was probably not cooked quite long enough.
Hi Najiah, This is usually a sign that the cake wasn’t cooked enough. leave it in the oven a bit longer next time and check to see it is cooked through before removing.
Just made this cake but as always my cake fell after a few seconds of turning it upside down. What did gone wrong? I want to perfect this recipe.
Hi Yen, if the cake fell out of the container it is either incorrectly supported or the pan may have been greased (no need to do that). When I turn the tin upside down, I ensure the supports the tin rests on, also prevent the cake from falling out. If your cake just won’t stay in the tin, you can alays cool it upright instead of upside down. If the cake collapsed after baking then it wasn’t cooked long enough.
Hi Yen, Did the cake go flat or did it fall out of the tin? If it went flat and dense, this is usually a sign that the cake wasn’t cooked enough. leave it in the oven a bit longer next time and check to see it is cooked through before removing. If it fell out of the tin, adjust your supports so it can’t fall out and make sure that the pan is not greased.
hi ann 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 ?
Hi Jaismin, cream of tartar helps to stabilise the egg whites. You can replace is with lemon juice or vinegar but it does change the taste. We recommend using it for best results. Gelatin helps to make the cake a firm but light and fluffy texture that works well for lots of projects. You can leave it out but for best results use gelatin or Halal gelatin if you can’t use animal products.