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.
Can I use agar agar in substitution of the gelatine?
Hi Sana, I haven’t tried this but gelatine would be the more effective product in this recipe. If you try agar agar let me know how it goes and if the texture or taste is impacted significantly.
Hi, Ann
Can I use a non stick spring form or does it have to be aluminum baking tin for cake to rise because here you say do not grease tin.
Hi Vivian, I use non-stick cake pans but the cake will cool upside down in the tin quite well.
Hi Ann,
I tried your Sponge cake recipe and it was heavenly delicious,I just have a question that when i turned the cake upside down to cool it just came out of the tin,I tried fixing this by placing a cooling rack under my cake but the cake just flipped over on the rack and had the rack pattern on the top,therefore I just trimmed the cake from top and alot of the cake was waisted.PLEASE HELP ME IN THIS ISSUE.
Hi Sara, I balance my cake tin upside down on 2 cups placed at the edges letting the cup top sit across the surface of the cake a little. This ensures the cake can’t fall out and if there is any mark it is small and just a mild indent only.
Hi Ann,
i want to try this recipe for my friend bithday but my oven is not fan oven .so at what tepmerature should I put it in ? and is the heat just from down or both up and down ?
Hi Yuu, You could up the temperature a little by 10-20 degrees. Use the bottom element only
Hey Ann do we have to use the cream of tartar and the gelatine powder if I don’t have any and do you like my name
Hi Dana, These two ingredients help to give the cake a light, fluffy but stable texture. You will get the best results by using them.
Hey Ann,
I loved this recipe and looks very impressive! From the experiences of always failing in making a perfect sponge cake, i have a lot of hope in your recipe. I would like to know if cups differs from place to place as i do not have a weighing machine and i would also like to know how i should reduce the amounts of the ingredients if i need half the size.
Thanks in advance! Keep going great!
Hi Archa, Firstly I would not half the ingredients though you could if needed. The recipe as is makes a really generous 2 layer sponge. Cup measurements do differ between countries that use a metric system and those that use imperial, that is why we give alternative measurements. Ann uses metric cups. Imperial cups are just a little larger.
Hey Ann, instead of using cream of tartar can I put half the sugar into the egg whites instead?
Hi Me, these 2 ingredients are not interchangeable. The cream of tartar helps create the bonds in the egg whites that will stabilize the mix. Sugar wont do that.
Hi, i’d like to know the reason for the gelatin in the sponge, i’ve never heard of putting gelatin in a cake batter.
Is this recipe similar to a Chiffon cake?
Hi Romana, This is a common question , but it actually helps stablise the light fluffy texture of the cake, so it doesn’t fall apart too easily like sponge cakes can. This makes this recipe a great go to for cake for decorating and shaped cakes.
hi I was just wondering if this cake is fine to crumb coat then the frosting over the top then decorate or is it one you just put cream in
Hi Natasha, This cake is great for both. Ann uses this cake a lot for shaping and decorating.
Omg I love your work. Thank you for sharing your talents with us. I need a little help. I’m a great baker but I’m a little confused. When I measure 2 cups of flour from a measuring cup it comes up 240 grams. Now, which do I follow, the cup or the weight to make the 320 grams? I ould like to make this again for my baby’s b-day. Thanks in advance. Im a big fan. Bee.
Hi Bee, the cup used in the US, UK and Australia vary in capacity and you can also ‘pack’ the cup which also impacts the weight. It is best to use the weight measurement as an accurate guide.
Do you have to use the gelatin or is there a recipe for vanilla cake that doesn’t use that? I have someone allergic to it so can’t use it. I’m making the Rainbow Dash Cake but we are not chocolate fans either. Thank you
Hi Cecelia, the cake will work better if gelatine is used. You can swap it for halal gelatine. This page also has a vanilla cake recipe as an alternative: https://wellness-wave1.news/public_html/how-to-make-a-princess-cake-using-fondant/%3C/a%3E .
Hello,
I have been perusing your site for a few weeks now. I am planning on making you Thomas the Train 3D cake, but we are not chocolate lovers. One of the comments on that page said to use this sponge cake for it. But I see here there a few comments that say the fondant is too heavy for this cake. Do you have a vanilla cake recipe you would recommend for such a cake. I am starting baking 06/02/2016.
Thank you. Jessica
hi jessica, yes that one will be too soft for a Thomas cake. I do have a new vanilla cake recipe coming soon that would work but i don’t think it will be uploaded by your deadline, sorry.
Hi Ann,
I was just wondering if I wanted to make 3 9″ cakes how much batter will I need.
Kind regards,
Jazzy
Does this cake turn hard if itso put in the freezer? Will it still be moist ?
Hi Carol-Lyn. You can freeze it. Wrap it in cling wrap and put in a ziplock bag with excess air removed. It won’t be as good as fresh but it copes quite well. You can spray or brush with a light sugar syrup if needed.
Hello! I absolutely LOVE all your videos!
I actually plan to use quite a few of your techniques for a cake for my University graduation next month!!
I was wondering though: I have heard you can replace the sugar in a cake recipe with unsweetened applesauce and just reduce the liquid (i.e. milk, or water) by 1/4 cup for every cup of applesauce
I wanted to ask if that works with this recipe of yours??
I am looking for a recipe that doesn’t use so much sugar as I have many diabetic family members
Thank you for your help!!
Hi Meaghan, Ann hasn’t tested that with this recipe so you will need to experiment for yourself.
This recipe is amazing
Hi Ann,
Is there a reason that you don’t grease your tins? Can I use foil to line the bottom of the tray instead of baking paper? I have to bake this cake tonight for a birthday tomorrow and I’m out of baking paper!
Hi, Valerie.
She didn’t grease her tins because, for this type of cake, that need to be cooled upside down, you need the batter to cling to the sides, so that it won’t fall out of the tin when turned upside to cool.
Check out recipes for chiffon cakes. It’s basically this recipe.
Hope this was helpful. =)
Hi Valerie, yes Ann likes to cool the cake upside down in the tins. If you grease them they fall out too easily.
Hi,
I’m from Denmark, and we dont have powdered gelatin, but i really wanna make the sponge. Anything i can use instead or can i just leave it out?
Hi Ida, You can leave it out but it will work much better with it in.
Hi I’m really excited to try your recipe. I’ve got a 3 tier 1st birthday cake to do and wanted to use your recipe. Would I be able to use your recipe for a 6 inch , 8inch cake tin and a 10inch tin, I have to bake them as one cake then slice them in half for each layer . What do u suggest I do for recipes for each cake tin, an obviously will have to bake longer. Hope you can help .
Paulajane
Hi Paulajane, You could use this recipe but you will need cake supports. Ann’s sponge recipe makes two 8 inch cakes that can each be cut in half if needed. If you use this recipe for your middle layer, you could use half the quantity for the top tier and 1.5 times the recipe for the bottom tier. Use a cake cutter to make the top of each layer nice and flat. It would not be the best idea to cook them as one cake. They would take much longer to cook and risk drying out.
I recently used this cake for my daughter’s birthday cake, but with the rainbow frosting recipe. I have to say this was the one of the best cakes I’ve ever made! It held up wonderfully and tasted amazing. I received many compliments on this and will definitely be keeping this recipe for future use! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Cecily, glad it is working well for you.