Create a perfect sponge cake recipe in 5 minutes

I left sponge cake as the pinnacle of this series of posts for a reason. It has amazing taste and texture, and is an incredibly versatile type of cake. There are tons of wildly different sponge cake recipes out there, so you may have a hard time if you're looking to compare this to something, but I assure you, it works.

Components of a sponge cake recipe:

• Driers: In a sponge cake, you use fewer driers than you would for a shortened cake. It is possible to make a sponge cake with the same exact recipe as a creaming method cake, but it doesn't produce the best cake (and contains butter, which sponge cake normally lacks). For two 9 inch rounds, I start with about 6 oz of driers.

• Sugar: There are a few considerations to make when figuring out how much sugar to add. The amount of sugar should equal the weight of the eggs (or slightly surpass it), and should also surpass the weight of driers.

• Eggs: Generally the weight of eggs equals the weight of sugar. It is also important that it exceeds the weight of the driers.

• Liquid: Here we get to the fun part, where everything comes together. The first consideration is that the weight of liquids and eggs exceeds the weight of sugar. The combined weight of the liquids and the sugar must also be less than the combined weight of eggs and flour.

And that's it. Really, it's that easy. Be sure to remember a little bit of salt and some flavorings, and then your recipe is complete. Here's an example of a recipe created this way.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz eggs
• 4 oz sugar
• 3 oz flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 oz milk
• 1/4 tsp almond extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and prepare pans by lining the bottoms with parchment paper. Do not grease.
2. In a mixer, whip the eggs and sugar on medium-high speed until light and airy - 3-5 minutes.
3. Mix together the flour and salt and fold into the egg mixture.
4. Mix in the milk and almond extract.
5. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for approx 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

And what did I do with this cake? Made cake balls, of course.

I'm considering doing a post on the classifications of ingredients (driers, tenderizers, etc) to wrap up the series on cakes. Would anyone be interested? Leave a comment and let me know!

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