Sponge Cakes

Alison_B

Can anybody help with a sponge cake. No matter what ingredients I use and how much air I try to put into a sponge cake during mixing it, it always comes out really heavy. Do the bakeries but a special ingredient into their sponges to make them nice, light and springy as mine tend to resemble bricks.:o

Curry_Queen

When you add your flour are you folding it in very lightly? If you tend to be a bit heavy handed, or over mix it at this stage, it will knock out any air that you put in during the initial stages.

Bossyboots

Do you want to post on here how you make it? I had the same problem for years until my MIL went through it with me step by step (hers could fly they are so light!).

It turned out I was over beating mine. Also, I was using an all in one margarine which was too heavy so I changed to Flora. I also changed to a better quality flour (I was using value flour) and voila, now mine are beautiful.

Sarahsaver

weigh your eggs then you need the same weight again of each sr flour, sugar and margarine. mums way of doing them and it always works. Sift the flour, that puts air into the mixture.

Rikki

I weight my eggs, use same weight butter and sugar and self raising flour. Cream together butter and sugar with wooden spoon,add beaten eggs beat well, add flour mix in with metal spoon.

Are you using the right flour?

Curry_Queen

Some of the hydrogenated margarine spreads are totally unsuitable for baking, although I'm not sure about Flora. I only ever use real butter, although I have used Stork marg in the past at a push

bugs

For me I think the most important thing is having all the ingredients at room temp - this means leaving the eggs and butter on the worktop overnight or from the moment you get in from work, the butter should be very very soft.

Sadly I am also finding at the moment that I get a much better and lighter result from cakes with self-raising flour, than I do with plain flour and the appropriate amount of bicarb and tartar.

I assume you're using a plain Victoria sponge recipe like this one: http://www.downsizer.net/Projects/Processing_Food/The_easiest_sponge_cake_in_the_world/?

One possibility might be to take a leaf from the angel cake recipes and whisk the egg whites separately, and fold in.

Sarahsaver

yep the low fat ones are useless cos of a high water content. I sometimes use veg oil.

DSmiffy

This is a Nigella receipe and eversince I started using it I have NEVER had a bad cake. I think it's the cornfklour and baking powder that does the trick.
For victoria sponge:-

200g Self raising flour
25g Cornflour
225g caster sugar
225g very soft marg ( i use Stork)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 eggs
4 tablespoons full fat milk

put the lot in a bowl and whizz all of it with an elec mixer or hand whisk
Turn it into two greased cake tins and cook in the oven for approx 25 mins at 180 degrees C or 160 degrees in a fan oven. My oven is a bit temperamental so you should keep an eye on yours.
When ready the tops should spring back when pressed and a skewer should come out clean when stuck in the middle.

This makes a large vic sponge, if you want a smaller one, just use 125g each of sugar, self raising flour, marg and only use two eggs and 2 tablespoons of milk.

MATH

I never realised sponges were so tricky! I use the cheapest of sr flour, substitute bog standard granny sugar for the more expensive caster, use butter or marg depending what I have a glut off, two eggs for a 4 oz flour mix and a splosh of milk. Skip the creaming and sifting cos it's too juch of a fad, chuck it all in together and beat until smooth. Am I just lucky with my slap-dash sponge or what?

Alison_B

The recipe I used last night was called simple chocolate cake.

Ingredients

4 oz plain chocolate
3 tbsp milk
3 oz butter or margarine (I used butter)
7 oz light brown sugar
3 eggs
7 oz self-raising flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder

Instructions

Melt chocolate over a pan of water and set aside.

Put the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the chocolate mixture until it is well combined.

Sift in the flour and cocoa over the mixture and fold in with a metal spoon until well mixed (I did this very gently).

Grease and line 2 sandwich tins then pour mixture into tins and bake for 35 - 40 minutes in a preheated oven on 180 oC/350 oF/Gas Mark 4.


I follow the instructions to the letter but I am sure that if I baked a few, I could build a substantial wall with them.