sponge cake trouble!

I've never used a cake mix to make sponge before, but after reading your thread, I'm wondering...........?

The fact that you allow the mixture to whip until doubled +  in bulk means you are incorporating air into the mixture.

When you add the melted butter, are you just mixing it in or are you "folding" it in?

This can make or break your sponge.

Look to baking911.com for tried and true sponge/angel food cake recipes as well as some valuable picture tutorials.

Even a few very inventive tips!

mimi

Here's a very easy, tried and true sponge cake recipe - either two 9 inch round layers or one 13X9 rectangle, or a sheet pan 15 long (don;t remember width) or an angel pan, though it won;t fill it. 

If you have a mixer it's so easy

6 eggs

1 cup sugar (superfine is best, but you can use any granulated)

1 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

Sponge cakes are without butter (though i believe the british "sponge" is our butter cake)

Beat the whole eggs with salt and vanilla till extremely fluffy and you can't really see the bubbles because it's all foam.  Beat in the sugar gradually, while beating at high speed.  Keep beating till it's a wonderfully soft and fluffy mass, and when you lift the beater it leaves a trail that slowly dissolves on the surface of the mixture. 

Sift the flour over it, and fold in (dip a rubber spatula in the center, push to the bottom and then scrape up along the edge closest to you and dump the egg mixture that you get in the spatula over the flour.  Turn 1/8 turn and do the same - into the center and up the edge and over, then anpther 1/8 turn, untill all the dry flour has disappeared.  You can stir through it slowly to be sure, but don't beat it once you added the flour., 

Grease and paper line the bottom of the pan only (the grease on the sides supposedly makes the cake not rise as well because it slides down on the greasy sides - but be sure to grease and line the bottom).  Bake at 350 until lightly browned and if you touch the top  lightly it springs back. 

Time depends on the cake size, but start checking at 20 min. 

If you don;t have a good electric stand mixer, then separate the eggs and beat the yolks with 3/4 of the sugar, salt and vanilla.  In a separate bowl beat the whites till fairly stiff, then add the rest of the sugar a little at a time, like a tsp at a time, as ytou continue to beat.  Beat till the whites are very stiff and you can turn the bowl over and they don;t slide out. 

Add 1/4 of the whites to the yolks and mix well.  Then sift the flour on top of that, and add the whites on top, and do the folding as i described above. 

Good luck

It's no harder than a mix, tastes better and is pretty foolproof. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by siduri 

Here's a very easy, tried and true sponge cake recipe - either two 9 inch round layers or one 13X9 rectangle, or a sheet pan 15 long (don;t remember width) or an angel pan, though it won;t fill it. 

 

If you have a mixer it's so easy

 

6 eggs

1 cup sugar (superfine is best, but you can use any granulated)

1 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

 

Sponge cakes are without butter (though i believe the british "sponge" is our butter cake)

 

Beat the whole eggs with salt and vanilla till extremely fluffy and you can't really see the bubbles because it's all foam.  Beat in the sugar gradually, while beating at high speed.  Keep beating till it's a wonderfully soft and fluffy mass, and when you lift the beater it leaves a trail that slowly dissolves on the surface of the mixture. 

 

Sift the flour over it, and fold in (dip a rubber spatula in the center, push to the bottom and then scrape up along the edge closest to you and dump the egg mixture that you get in the spatula over the flour.  Turn 1/8 turn and do the same - into the center and up the edge and over, then anpther 1/8 turn, untill all the dry flour has disappeared.  You can stir through it slowly to be sure, but don't beat it once you added the flour., 

Grease and paper line the bottom of the pan only (the grease on the sides supposedly makes the cake not rise as well because it slides down on the greasy sides - but be sure to grease and line the bottom).  Bake at 350 until lightly browned and if you touch the top  lightly it springs back. 

Time depends on the cake size, but start checking at 20 min. 

 

If you don;t have a good electric stand mixer, then separate the eggs and beat the yolks with 3/4 of the sugar, salt and vanilla.  In a separate bowl beat the whites till fairly stiff, then add the rest of the sugar a little at a time, like a tsp at a time, as ytou continue to beat.  Beat till the whites are very stiff and you can turn the bowl over and they don;t slide out. 

Add 1/4 of the whites to the yolks and mix well.  Then sift the flour on top of that, and add the whites on top, and do the folding as i described above. 

 

Good luck

It's no harder than a mix, tastes better and is pretty foolproof. 

 

I used a similar recipe to this one (only half the ingredient amounts)

and my sponge became super dry (kind of like a sponge for the kitchen etc)

isn't sponge suposed to be moist? or am i doing something wrong :S

heres what i used..

Ingredients

3 Large Eggs

1/2 Cup Self-raising flour

1/2 Cup Sugar

a few drops of vanilla flavouring/extract

a pinch of salt

Method

1. Separate egg whites and yolks

2. Beat egg whites until stiff

3. slowly add in sugar until combined and stiff

4. add in egg yolks and vanilla until combined

5. fold in self raising flour & salt until combined

6. Bake at 200C for 15-20mins 

my result was a dry sponge cake (not burnt or anything as far as i can tell)

P.S would the recipe vary if i used the mix as cupcakes instead of the cake tin?

First of all, sponge cake is NOT a moist cake.  It's a spongy cake, which, compared to a butter cake, has what i consider a sort of rubbery texture.  It holds up very well for a jelly roll because of this.  Personally, i find it not to be a great cake, though it can be pleasant if you fill it with whipped cream. 

If you want a moist cake you need a butter cake.  There are plenty of good recipes for moist butter cake (look down this baking forum for "finally the perfect white cake" for one that is easy and incredibly moist. 

However it shouldn;t be dry, that is crumbly dry.  It's just not moist. 

@siduri thanks for the reply, your right about the not moist part, im probably making this wrong as the sponge im used to eating is usually fluffy and soft whilst the one i made is rough and dry... (made me think it was supposed to be moist haha)

which is annoying considering i followed the recipe fully and yeah not good, im going to try a vanilla sponge cake today which uses butter so hopefully it'll end up being better then my first recipe :D

thanks again for the reply 

Mitzeh,

I think maybe in australia as in the UK, a sponge is what we would call a butter cake.  That's where the problem is, i think.  In the states, sponge cake has no butter, just eggs, sugar and flour (vanilla).  It;s a whole other type of cake.  I only realized that sponge is different in the UK when i read a recipe for sponge and it was actually a typical butter cake. 

I hadn't noticed where you were from before i replied. 

i believe you are right :) i didn't know what we used as i've never made a sponge cake before other then for a yule log at xmas and my failure last week haha (both without butter)

i might try the butter cake (australian sponge) sometime in the future and see what the result is :D

thanks for the information 

Nope a sponge cake here downunder is made without butter and cakes with fat are called  buttercakes

Sponge cake here is served filled with jam and cream and sometimes iced - they are not as popular as they used to be

My sponge cakes all have butter - except when making a swiss roll mixture.

Ditto Siduri. 

As Mrs. Beeton (http://www.mrsbeeton.com/35-chapter35.html) confirms, sponge cake has traditionally meant an egg, sugar, and flour cake in Britain.  You get more or less the same thing in Italian cakery, which takes especially good advantage of its absorbent properties.  As you can see in several responses, sponge cake is generally not meant to be eaten alone: you're combining it with a moist filling or something wet that it absorbs.  I use a similar recipe to make biscotti.  The great thing about these cakes is they're fast and dead easy.

My Dad used to do a "genoise" that was basically a sponge cake with a tablespoon of melted butter added at the very end of the folding process, for flavor.