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.
I made this for my mum on mothers day and she loved it and wants your recipe! Honestly the best sponge cake she’s ever had. Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe 🙂
Thanks Heather. So glad your Mum enjoyed it.
My oven without fan ,,, and this is the degree 150c, 170c, 190c, ,,, which one of those will be suitable for this cake, ,,, thanks alot for you ,,,,
Hi Nora, Try cooking your cake at about 160-180C in your oven.
awesome recipe the only slither.io recipe i found on internet! my son will be thrilled! can i bake in regular 15×10 bake pans or musy i use jellybroll pans, which are much more shallow? Thanks!
Standard baking pans Tammy.
Ann,
Thank you for your wonderful blog and You Tube channel. You have saved me several times.
I have been asked to make a wedding cake for a friend and I am over my head. I need a sponge that will hold up under the weight of several layers but still be delicious. Is this a good one for a layered cake like a wedding cake?
Hi Yvonna, this cake is suitable. This quantity makes 2 cakes that can be layered as you please. If using more layers than you can create with 2 cakes then Ann recommends using some form of support to prevent the layers slipping etc.
Hey Ann , i was wondering how much this cake would weigh.How many people does this cake serve?When you made it, did it feed your family of 5? Or did you make it for an occasion .Anyways, i love your videos and cant wait to try this recipe.Sounds delicious!
Hi Maryiyam, This cake makes 10-12 serves. It just depends on how you big you make the serves!
Hi Ann,
Would it be ok if I made the cake, then left it in the fridge for a couple of days before decorating it? I’m thinking of making this cake for my mother’s birthday but the only time I have to make it is four days before.
Hi Tash, 4 days before is probably a little long. Cakes dry out very quickly and are best made just the day prior. You could make, cool and freeze the sponge sealed in plastic film, but it will need to fully defrost before you decorate and serve.
Hi Ann,
I absolutely love this cake and use it every time I need a sponge. I know you have many chocolate cake recipes but I love the lightness of this cake so if I had to make it into a chocolate cake how would I do it ? Add 75% flour and 25%coco?
HI Nayani, Ann gets asked this question a lot. She actually recommends a different mixture for a good chocolate cake as adding cocoa to this one doesn’t really give a chocolatey flavour and it can be a little dry. Ann prefers her chcolate cake recipe recipe which is a little more dense but definitely tastes like a good chocolate cake: https://wellness-wave1.news/public_html/chocolate-cake-recipe/%3C/a%3E .
Hi Ann,
ever since I followed this sponge recipe, I have used no other. I always keep a few sponge lawyers in the freezer to be able to come up with a cake on short notice.
Thank you for testing and coming up with this recipe!
Thanks Corinna. Ann loves to hear that the recipes are working for you.
I made this cake as a special treat. I didn’t have gelatin and substituted it with strawberry jello. This was definitely better than store bought cakes. Delicious
Hey Ann could I leave the gelatin out…?
Hi Farhana, You could leave the gelatine out but the texture of the cake is so much better with it in. If you are unable to obtain or use standard gelatine then halal gelatine is a good alternative.
Why use water instead of milk? Wouldn’t milk taste better?
I have recently been trying many different recipes to find what I consider to be the best and this one certainly is not. I followed it to the letter but it was ultimately disappointing compared to a few others I have found.
This is just another middle of the road recipe which deviates from and offers no improvement over the traditional ingredients and technique for making this sponge.
how many cupcakes does this recepie make?
Hi Question, It will all depend on how large you make the cupcakes. The recipe is very generous, so you should get 12 large or 24 mini cupcakes.
Thank you Ann. Just would like to ask two questions. 1. Can you replace the oil with butter (for flavour)? 2. Can you cover this cake with fondant? My kid wants a rainbow cake and I don’t want to make a 6-layer one.
Hey Ann! Do you have a chocolate sponge cake recipe? Or can I replace some of the flour for cocoa powder in this recipe (if so, by how much)?
Thanks for all help.
Another quick question: You say 1 Tbsp or 3 tsp baking powder. But I always thought an Australian tbsp = 4 teaspoons instead of 3 tsp?
Hi Elys, An Australian Tbsp is 4 tsp, but an American Tbsp is 3 tsp. It is important in recipes to watch the source if you are used to using an Australian Tbsp as it can affect your recipe (and a lot of recipes I find usually have an American source).
Hi Ann,
Thanks for your answer.
You say the gelatine helps to stabilise the texture keeping it light and fluffy but firm. So I think it might be better to use gelatin instead of leaving it out.
If I wanted to use the gelatine leaves how much should I use?
And should I put the melted gelatine in with the egg whites or with the egg yolks?
Hi Ann,
In my country I can’t buy powdered gelatin in the stores just gelatin leaves.
Can I use these gelatin leaves in this recipe instead of the powdered gelatin you use?
And how much should I use? One leave weights about 1,7 grams.
Do I place the gelatin leaves in a bowl of cool water and leave it to soften, then heat it in the microwave to melt it and then put it into the batter? And should I put the melted gelatine in with the egg whites or with the egg yolks?
If I can’t use gelatin leaves can I just omit it (so no gelatine in this cake)? I have never baked a cake that had gelatin in it. What does the gelatin do in this cake?
Thanks for your answer.
Hi Elys, Powder is better for this recipe and is usually much more readily available than gelatine leaves. You can leave it out if needed, though the gelatine helps to stabilise the texture keeping it light and fluffy but firm. Without it you may find your cake more inclined to crumble when cutting.
Hi Ann, this cake is sooo delicious, moist, fluffy. Would you be so kind of telling me, how to turn thid recipe into green tea cake? Shall i just add 1 or 2 tbs matcha powder?… thankyouuu
Hi Mahaki, Ann suggests replacing the water in this recipe with a cup of strong green the. You would need to experiment with the concentration to see what game you the best green tea flavour without being over powering.
Hello! I made this cake two years ago for my daughter’s birthday and I didn’t use cream of tart because I wasn’t able to find it in the shops, here in Portugal. Still it was execellent, really delicious! This year I decided to do it for my son’s birthday but it became a little bit rubbery! I hate it when that happens!!! What could I have done wrong? The cake was still delicious to taste, it was fluffy and moist, except for those parts. The guests at my son’s party liked the cake but I love baking and it really annoys me when some of the cakes turn rubbery. Thank you…
HI Claudia, If the cake goes a little rubbery it usually means it is a little over cooked. It may be that your oven is cooking unevenly and that is why you are getting patches that seem rubbery.
I can’t wait to try to bake this with my mom. Thanks Ann