Sponge Cake Recipe

janb5

mildred1978 wrote: »

No excuse for a cake shop owner to ever, EVER use marg. Yuck. _pale_

Ok that`s your opinion but there`s nothing to stop you adding butter if your prefer. Mary Berry uses marg so I dont see why you`re being so damning about it. I posted in good faith for the op . Actually it works so there you go!:beer:

Somehow you havent criticized anyone else on the rest of the thread for using marg...but I digress!

Florenceem

janb5 wrote: »

Here`s mine- donated by a kind owner of a cake shop. I`ve also started to use the the new Lakeland sponge sandwich tin which is great!

Chocolate Sponge Cake



6 oz SR flour
1.5 tsps baking powder
6 oz caster sugar
6oz soft marg
3 large eggs
4 tsps cocoa mixed with 4 tbls hot water


Mix all ingredients together I food mixer for 2 – 3 minutes. Divide the mixture between two 7” cake tines( greased and bottom lined) Cook in No 3 oven for approx. 35 mins.


Chocolate Fudge Topping

8 oz icing sugar( sifted)
2 oz plain chocolate
2 oz marg.
3 tablespoons milk

Melt together in bowl the choc, marg and milk. Add to the icing sugar and mix well. Leave for a few minutes until icing cold and thick. Spread on cake.

Variations

For lemon sponge: grated rind of lemon in sponge mix- for butter icing use 8 oz sieved icing sugar, 4 oz soft marg, 1 tablespoon lemon curd and approx half tablespoon of milk

For coffee and walnut sponge

3 tsps instant coffee blended with 2 tsps of boiling water ( Don’t bother- use Camp!) – add to sponge mix. For butter icing use 2 tsps of instant coffee blended with 1 tsp of boiling water and to 8 oz sieved icing sugar and 4 oz soft marg. Sprinkle chopped walnuts on top.

What do you sandwich chocolate cakes together with please?

VfM4meplse

Ladies, some diagnostic advice is sorely needed for anyone who can be bothered to read this!

I've been making cakes by hand for years (adding eggs individually each followed by a portion of double-sifted flour), and whilst they taste great I've never managed to get them superlight and fluffy like professional cakes> Most of teh time I have tried to avoid eggs by using oil and crushed linseeds, so accepted that they would never be anywhere as light as those with eggs, so decided to go back to a standard sponge recipe and have a go with my 600w hand blender.

I used a 8oz/4 egg mixture in a 9" silicone pan - could have gone with a 12oz/6 egg mixture to fill the pan- and added another 2oz of SR flour for extra lightness. Firstly I beat the eggs separately until really light and frothy, then I started on the fat (Pure sunflower) and sugar mixture. When blended I added in all the egg mixture, it curdled but I kept going until the mixture became smooth again. I then added the double-sifted self-raising flour and initially mixed it in v gently with a metal spoon - but lumps were visible in the smooth batter so I went in again with the whisk to get it smooth again. The only other additions were some flaked almonds on the base (the pan was moulded) and the finely grated rind of 2 oranges. When cool, I added a 40g/40ml simple sugar syrup.

Well the cake tastes really good, but the texture is a bit of a disappointment. The crumbs are very fine in contrast to the thicker crumbs of my handmade cakes, but the cake was not light and fluffy by any stretch of the imagination. There were airholes on the top (base of the pan), and even larger pockets of air at the bottom (top of the pan).

I've looked at advice from websites - including Delia's - and can see a curdled mixture will never be that light, that eggs should be added one at a time and that overworking the flour leads to the air pockets and can result in a "tough" and chewy cake. (Mine wasn't tough though, maybe that was because of the syrup?). I don't get how TV chefs can use food processors, blitz to oblivion and still get nice cakes - yes Ina and Nigella, I'm talking about you ! Any advice on getting the fluffy factor right would be apppreciated.

ETA: image of cross section


Arial view:

janb5

Florenceem wrote: »

What do you sandwich chocolate cakes together with please?

Either butter icing or sometimes I use double cream and fruit.

Have a look at recipe again - does mention the icing and filling in all 3 recipes.

janb5

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Ladies, some diagnostic advice is sorely needed for anyone who can be bothered to read this!

I've been making cakes by hand for years (adding eggs individually each followed by a portion of double-sifted flour), and whilst they taste great I've never managed to get them superlight and fluffy like professional cakes> Most of teh time I have tried to avoid eggs by using oil and crushed linseeds, so accepted that they would never be anywhere as light as those with eggs, so decided to go back to a standard sponge recipe and have a go with my 600w hand blender.

I used a 8oz/4 egg mixture in a 9" silicone pan - could have gone with a 12oz/6 egg mixture to fill the pan- and added another 2oz of SR flour for extra lightness. Firstly I beat the eggs separately until really light and frothy, then I started on the fat (Pure sunflower) and sugar mixture. When blended I added in all the egg mixture, it curdled but I kept going until the mixture became smooth again. I then added the double-sifted self-raising flour and initially mixed it in v gently with a metal spoon - but lumps were visible in the smooth batter so I went in again with the whisk to get it smooth again. The only other additions were some flaked almonds on the base (the pan was moulded) and the finely grated rind of 2 oranges. When cool, I added a 40g/40ml simple sugar syrup.

Well the cake tastes really good, but the texture is a bit of a disappointment. The crumbs are very fine in contrast to the thicker crumbs of my handmade cakes, but the cake was not light and fluffy by any stretch of the imagination. There were airholes on the top (base of the pan), and even larger pockets of air at the bottom (top of the pan).

I've looked at advice from websites - including Delia's - and can see a curdled mixture will never be that light, that eggs should be added one at a time and that overworking the flour leads to the air pockets and can result in a "tough" and chewy cake. (Mine wasn't tough though, maybe that was because of the syrup?). I don't get how TV chefs can use food processors, blitz to oblivion and still get nice cakes - yes Ina and Nigella, I'm talking about you ! Any advice on getting the fluffy factor right would be apppreciated.

Hi - do you use two sandwich tins or one tin on its own? Have you tried adding a small amount of baking powder to the ingredients? Have you also tried using another fat such as butter - does that make a difference?

The good news is that it tasted great which is the most important thing of all!

VfM4meplse

Thanks janb5 - just added a couple of pics so you can see the state of it. I put the mixture in a single 9" cake silicone cake mould as I wanted to see how well the pattern worked. You can see gaping airholes in the top which turned out to be handy for the syrup stage, but not aesthetically perfect.

I don't think it's the Pure that's the problem but I'm open to suggestion if you can recommend any vegetable fat. I don't much like buttery cakes as IME they are heavy and leave a greasy residue. I will add some baking powder next time but I'm not convinced it's going to give an even result, if you see the first pic you can see the texture is v uneven.

I have to say, it did taste amazing - even the uncooked batter was delicious, none of that raw egg / flour taste.

mildred1978

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Ladies, some diagnostic advice is sorely needed for anyone who can be bothered to read this!

I've been making cakes by hand for years (adding eggs individually each followed by a portion of double-sifted flour), and whilst they taste great I've never managed to get them superlight and fluffy like professional cakes> Most of teh time I have tried to avoid eggs by using oil and crushed linseeds, so accepted that they would never be anywhere as light as those with eggs, so decided to go back to a standard sponge recipe and have a go with my 600w hand blender.

I used a 8oz/4 egg mixture in a 9" silicone pan - could have gone with a 12oz/6 egg mixture to fill the pan- and added another 2oz of SR flour for extra lightness. Firstly I beat the eggs separately until really light and frothy, then I started on the fat (Pure sunflower) and sugar mixture. When blended I added in all the egg mixture, it curdled but I kept going until the mixture became smooth again. I then added the double-sifted self-raising flour and initially mixed it in v gently with a metal spoon - but lumps were visible in the smooth batter so I went in again with the whisk to get it smooth again. The only other additions were some flaked almonds on the base (the pan was moulded) and the finely grated rind of 2 oranges. When cool, I added a 40g/40ml simple sugar syrup.

Well the cake tastes really good, but the texture is a bit of a disappointment. The crumbs are very fine in contrast to the thicker crumbs of my handmade cakes, but the cake was not light and fluffy by any stretch of the imagination. There were airholes on the top (base of the pan), and even larger pockets of air at the bottom (top of the pan).

I've looked at advice from websites - including Delia's - and can see a curdled mixture will never be that light, that eggs should be added one at a time and that overworking the flour leads to the air pockets and can result in a "tough" and chewy cake. (Mine wasn't tough though, maybe that was because of the syrup?). I don't get how TV chefs can use food processors, blitz to oblivion and still get nice cakes - yes Ina and Nigella, I'm talking about you ! Any advice on getting the fluffy factor right would be apppreciated.

ETA: image of cross section


Arial view:

I'm a master of the light and airy but moist cake. I use a Kitchenaid mixer, so that isn't the problem.

I never put eggs or butter in the fridge (and I don't sift anything but icing sugar). I never use granulated sugar or self raising flour.

Weigh the eggs and use the same amount of flour, sugar and butter. I beat the butter and caster sugar together on high power for ages, until very pale.

I break one egg at a time into the mixture and add a tablespoon of flour before whizzing on low for just a few seconds. Then repeat with other eggs.

Rest of flour and baking powder in (not too much baking powder else the cake will 'crater') and mixed on low just until mixed in. Add flavourings (coconut/vanilla extract/glace cherries/cinnamon/lemon/orange/coffee) and a couple of tablespoons of whole milk if needed.

Couple of folds with a spatula, and tip into tins. I use lakeland pushpans so no lining or greasing needed.

I tap the tins lightly on the counter to remove air bubbles, and into the oven.

Let them cool slightly in the tin (10-15 minutes) and then onto cooling racks.

When completely cold add icing or whatever to decorate.

Never fails me.

VfM4meplse

^^^^ Thanks so much for the tips Mildred, I can see significant differences between the way you've done that and my technique, so will definitely give that a go. What measure of baking powder to flour do you use? And do you find in adding a bit of extra flour improves the recipe?

Have you tried the post-baking syruping before? I picked it up from another thread - learned that professional do this - and it really brought out the taste of the orange zest.

I'm determined not to be beaten by cake .

mildred1978

VfM4meplse wrote: »

^^^^ Thanks so much for the tips Mildred, I can see significant differences between the way you've done that and my technique, so give that a go. What measure of baking powder to flour do you use? And do you find in adding a bit of extra flour improves the recipe?

Have you tried the post-baking syruping before? I picked it up from another thread - learned that professional do this - and it really brought out the tate of the zest.

I'm determined not to be beaten by cake .

I only ever use more flour than eggs/butter/sugar if I'm makinga madeira for carving.

4tsps baking powder per 250g flour.

And I only ever feed fruit cakes and lemon drizzle cakes. I've never needed to add it to an ordinary sponge. I don't like cakes to be too sweet anyway.

VfM4meplse

mildred1978 wrote: »

I only ever use more flour than eggs/butter/sugar if I'm makinga madeira for carving.

Is that the only difference between a Victoria sponge and a madeira?