A Sponge For All Occasions, Mama’s Secret Recipe

One of the best secret weapons that a mother can have up their sleeve is the ability to make a great sponge cake and today we are going to look at exactly that. No matter what the occasion happens to be, birthday, engagement party, Christmas or any other holiday or individual event, a sponge cake is always guaranteed to go down well. Not only this but a basic sponge cake is what forms the basis for so many cake varieties, so having a recipe in your locker is going to be a gift that just keeps on giving and giving.

The recipe which we are going to share is for a traditional ‘naked’ sponge cake, so let’s get to it.

Ingredients

The ingredients you will need begins with 3 eggs, you will then use equal measurements of self-raising flour, butter and sugar. Weight the eggs first, then use equal weights of the other ingredients.

Method

Now let’s take a look at how we can turn those delicious ingredients into a tasty sponge cake.

Step One

Preheat the oven to 160°C or 150°C for a fan oven, once you have done this grease and line the bottom of 2 sandwich pans, these should be around 6″ in size.

Step Two

Now it is time to cream the butter and the sugar by mixing them together, in order to get the consistency which we are looking for you need to really give the mixture a good beating, or use a hand-held whisk until you get a light and fluffy consistency.

Step Three

Crack all three eggs into a bowl and give them a quick whisk, before starting to add the butter and sugar combination. Beat the mixture a little as you slowly add the butter and sugar into the eggs. Once all of this has been combined  fold in 1teaspoon of vanilla extract and then sift the flour into the mixture, and fold this in too. Remember to fold slowly as the point is that we don’t want to add to much air to this mixture.

Step Four

Finally it is time to halve the mixture and split it across the two sandwich pans that you have greased up and ready. There will be the perfect amount of mixture to fill each tray so don’t worry about that. Once you have filled the trays, place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. The test to see if the cake is properly cooked is whether the sponge springs back when pushed. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

The most simple way to fill the cake here is with buttercream, which you can buy at the store or make yourself, there will be a recipe for that at another time, as well as some ideas on how to ice it. This naked sponge cake however, is what you need for all manner of great fillings and designs, get it right and you will have the perfect cake in your arsenal for all occasions.