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 am going to bake this cake..but i dont need 2 cakes as i am going to try it for the 1st time. So how can i half the recipe? And i also have another doubt..In the recipe provided above it says about fan forced oven.. what is a fan forced oven?
Thank you.. love all your recipes <3 <3
Thanks Ann, for your wonderful recipes!
Hi Ross, You could halve the recipe if you wish, though I would make 2 and freeze the one you don’t need.
A fan forced oven is an oven with a fan fitted in the rear, that when used evens the temperature in the oven to reduce the likelihood of hot or cool spots.
Thank you very much…i am going to try the recipe ?
Ross, as you have gram measurements in the recipe, just halve all the ammounts, I tried it once and it worked fine, a fan forced oven is one that (suprise!) has a fan at the back to distribute the heat evenly, usually reqiring a reduction of 20ºC in the temperature stated in the recpe, if what you’re given is a temperature for a fan oven and you don’t have one, add 20ºC to the required oven temperature, hope that helps
Your vids are so amazing love them
Thanks Jade.
Hello!! I am a baker and for my birthday cake I wanted to make a rainbow cake, and i need a colorable cake that tasted good. My mom will not allow me to use aaaaany gelatin at all, or things like that, what do you think i could use as a substitute?? Thanks!!
Hi Nora, You could try this recipe. It uses packet cake mix as they handle the extra colour well: https://wellness-wave1.news/public_html/rainbow-unicorn-cake/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hi Ann. Thanks for this recipe, its my go to recipe these days for sponge cake as I can have a hit and miss result with traditional 2, 3 or 4 egg sponge recipes. (I’m a heavy handed folder as my grandmother keeps informing me) :).
I just wanted to say that I have had great success each and every time with your recipe and also that it is a brilliant base sponge for lamingtons! Especially pannacotta lamingtons. I’ve done it before with your recipe and today (a cold and windy Melbournian Sunday) I’m going to knock out some big batches of chcolate, jelly and panna cotta lamingtons again for my family and the neighbours. I also don’t need to leave the sponge overnight for lamingtons with your recipe, although I do freeze for 20 mins before starting the cutting and dipping process.And because the quantities are big, I can make 2 lamington pans from one quantity of mixture, so it works out economical too.
Thanks for a great recipe, you wouldn’t think gelatine in a sponge would be a good idea – but it is fantastic!
Hi Sarah, that is great. I have never heard of Pannacotta lamingtons, they sound Fabulous.
Thankyou this seems like a great recipe, but I was wondering instead of vegetable oil can you use olive oil?
Hi Bree, Olive oil has a very distinctive taste and smell that will impact your mix. Vegetable oil is more neutral and copes with higher temps.
Can I use cornflour in the egg whites instead of cream of tartar? I’ve used cornflour before but I’m not sure what it does to the eggs whites and I don’t have cream of tartar at the moment xx
Hi Jorja, Corn flour wont stabilise the egg whites. It is just a thickening agent in most recipes.
Why jelatin in the batter can you tell me?
Hi Rose, sponge cakes tend to light and fluffy but very crumbly. They can be difficult to get right. The gelatin helps give the cake a more stable texture and form so you get good results conssitently.
You recipe says 1 tablespoon or 3 teaspoons of baking powder.
There is a big difference between 1 tablespoon and 3teaspoons.
As too much baking powder can cause a cake to collapse. And too little wont do the job.
So can you be more specific about the correct amount please?
In Australia, a tablespoon is 4 teaspoons, in the UK, US, NZ and many other places in the world it is 3 teaspoons. It’s just so its easier on an international level.
Hi Ruth, 1 US tablespoon is defined as about 15mls or 3 teaspoons An Aust tablesoon is 20ml and converts to 4 teaspoons.
Hallo Ann 🙂
Can I replace 1 1/2 tsp or 7.5g (0.26 ounces) gelatin (powdered) with something else or leave it out of the recipe?
Thanks you 🙂
xx Fie (Copenhagen)
Hi Fie, You can leave it out if preferedbut it does really help the texture and stability of the cake.
Hey Ann,
I wanted to make this cake but half the ingredients only, so what quantities would I use, especially for the eggs?
Thanks X
P.S Your awesome!!!!!!!
Hi Sara, Having made this cake many times, I recommend making the whole recipe. If you dont want a double layered cake, then put the cooled second cake in the freezer. Just cover with non-stick baking paper and either wrap with cling wrap or put in a sealable plastic bag.
Would it be good to cover this in cream cheese frosting and milk chocolate ganache?
Thanks!
I made this and haven’t frosted yet. Came out of the pan PERFECTLY! According to my friend, it tastes GREAT! Made four 6 inch pans took 30 minutes to cook! I am going to make two cakes tomorrow!
Thats great!
Awesome!
You could if you like those flavors together.
How many people would it serve?? And would it still be possible to make this cake without the gelatin and cream of tartar but just with not as good end results?? thxx
Nice but can I bake without the Cream of tartar
HI Alex, You can but you will get much better results if you follow the recipe.
hi Ann!
why you used gelatin? is it key component in this recipe?
hi Ann!
why you used gelatin? is it a key component in this recipe?
Hi Sarah, The gelatine helps to stabilize the texture of this cake. It is a key ingredient for best results.
Hi,
I am baking a 6″, 8″, 10″ and 12″ version of this cake on Friday.Please can you confirm how the cooking times change for cakes this size? Also, how do the ingredients change in quantities?
Kind Regards,
Sophie
Hey Ann,
I made this cake a couple of years ago, and it was awesome. But looking at the ingredients now, I’m wondering if your list is correct. I’m pretty sure I used the metric quantities, which in case of the flour is 320 grams. But converting this amount to cups would be closer to 2.5 cups of flour, not 2 cups! So please reconsider the cup measurement for the flour.
Hi Elza, Many conversion charts would measure 2 cups of flour at around 300g but Ann makes a point of weighing her ingredients and double checking. She has found 320g to be pretty accurate. If you prefer to use 300g it shouldn’t impact the recipe greatly.
Hi,
This is a great cake! I make it last week and I am going to use it for the recipe for my sister’s wedding naked cake.
Is it possible for you to let me know the ingredient quantities for a 6, 8,10 and 12 inch cake tins and if the recipe changes for the different sizes e.g. the cooking time/temp etc?
Also, the bit I found hard was to ‘turn the cake upside down’ to allow it to cool. It just slid out of the tin after 5 mins! Any hints/tips as to how to do this without it falling out?
Hi Sophie, Make sure you don’t line the side of the pan or grease it. I prop by cakes up over glasses that hold the cake in place around the edges.
Thank you for the response, I will try it out! Do you have the different ingredient quantities and cooking times for a 6, 8, 10 and 12 inch cake tin that you could share with me?
Kind Regards,
Sophie
Would i need to omit any flour if i was to add freeze dried strawberry powder to this sponge to get a strawberry sponge??
Hi Angela, Ann hasn’t tested this so you would need to experiment. It would really depend on how much of the powder you added.
Hi Ann
Can I use gluten free flour instead for this recipe? If so, should I use xanthan gum, or will the gelatin be suffice. Or should I use both ingredients? I’ve never baked using gluten free flour before, so my apologies for my ignorance. Google has been no help to me so far!
Lorna
Hi Lorna, Ann hasn’t trialled this recipe with a gluten free flour or xantham gum. I suspect it would not work well with just a gluten free flour, given it is a sponge texture. Rich and moist cakes with a fudgy texture work better with gluten free flours.
Thank you for getting back to me and letting me know. Can you ask Ann to give us a few gluten free recipes! x. Thanks again. Regards Lorna