Sponge cake (no yolks, no leaven) ?

[epicous]

Dear members,
Is it possible to make a sponge cake using egg whites, butter, flour, sugar and flavour?

[chrose]

Epicous the yolks in and of themselves don't make leavening. The action of heating them and whipping them incorporates air into the yolk mixture. The yolks add the strength to hold the air holes (the leavening) when it's baked. Essentially what you then have then without the yolks is an Angel Food Cake!

[alan Rose]

'Of an age' what age is that, Rodney? Only joking. For I know what you mean, my age 84, means that though I love food, I can't eat as much as I used to. But I love cooking and devising new recipes. My fridge and freezer is full of 'left-overs'. I'd love to go out for a meal sometime but that means my cooking doesn't get eaten up!!

[epicous]

Originally Posted by chrose

Epicous the yolks in and of themselves don't make leavening.

I know that.
The leavening agents are the yeast and the baking powder.

I'm just trying to bake a cake without yolks and without yeast or baking powder.

[Free Rider]

Originally Posted by epicous

I know that.
The leavening agents are the yeast and the baking powder.

I'm just trying to bake a cake without yolks and without yeast or baking powder.

In that case, you can use air as the leavening, through the egg whites.

[chrose]

Sponge cake (no yolks, no leaven) ?

Anyway like I said, you have Angel Food cake. Flour, sugar, egg whites, and flavoring.

[Eeyore]

Here's the prob. --I think.

You're wanting a white cake but you want it to be moister and more tender than angel food by the addition of the butter.

I don't think you can do that. The butter is going to deflate the whites and you will lose your leavening. I dont know if you can fold in the melted butter later as you would with a genoise...I tend to think it will still deflate the whites. So you will either need to make a genoise--which includes yolks or find a creamed butter cake recipe that uses whites and uses some form of chemical leavening.

Hope this helps.

eeyore

[epicous]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to test some conclusions.

[skylightsky]

I would be interested in the test conclusions.

I too am looking for a delicious white cake, not a genoise, which can hold itself structurally to heavy cake carving.

There's no need to spend time on decorating a lovely cake, just to have it cut and be "okay."

[momoreg]

Scratch white cakes and yellow cakes

Check out this thread.