The one that often has fruit toppings & whipped cream in it & maybe even flavored like fruit, coffee, tea, etc. Known for its – surprise, surprise – spongy texture. Relatively easy to make & add variety to, but also very easy to screw up when careless / impatient.
Speaking of relatives...
- Fruit cake
- Chiffon cake
- Swiss roll
- Angel food cake
Prepare these first.
- 4 large eggs
- 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 cup + 1 tbsp sifted flour
- 1 tbsp baking butter
- 1 tsp cooking oil
If some of these are not available, bare hands might work...
- Kitchen table
- Kitchen floor is good, too.
- Measuring cups
- 1/3 cup
- 1 tbsp
- 1 tsp
- Spoon
- Actual spoon for digging out the melted butter.
- Fork
- Whisk
- Spatula
- Mixer
- Cakepan
- Cakepan with handle is recommended.
- Perforated cakepan cover
- Baking paper / Aluminum foil, later glazed with melted butter / cooking oil
- Baking paper is recommended as it doesn't require glazing.
- Oven
- Oven user manual is recommended for first-timers.
I said "easy", not "short".
- Gently separate the yellow yolks from the egg whites in each large egg.
- Mix the egg whites in the mixer until foamy & pale white.
- Pour the granulated sugar in the egg whites 1 tbsp at a time.
- Mix the batter until it looks like whipped cream. A proper batter will maintain vertical shapes & swirls.
- Whisk the yellow yolks until foamy.
- Put some of the egg white & granulated sugar batter by whisk into the yellow yolks.
- Fold until the mixture is consistent with the original batter. This allows the protein & the fat to become uniform.
- Put the mixture back into the batter. Fold the mixture. Add 1/3 cup of the sifted flour at a time while folding.
- Melt the baking butter if not already melted. Use the microwave oven at medium-low intensity.
- Switch to the spatula. Put some of the batter into the melted baking butter by spatula. Stir gently until the melted baking butter texture disappears. Add more batter into the mix if necessary.
- Put the mixture back into the batter. Fold the batter until any remaining lumps disappear. A proper batter will look like sticky ice cream.
- Line the cakepan with aluminum foil / baking paper. Glaze the lining very lightly with 1 tsp melted butter or 1 tsp cooking oil.
- Put the batter into the cakepan. Remove large bubbles by stomping the cakepan onto the working table gently or by jabbing them with a fork. Shake the cakepan side to side to level the batter.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C for 5~10min. If the oven has a recommended baking temperature (e.g. 160°C), follow it instead.
- Put the cakepan into the oven. Run the same baking temperature for 25min. Consider jabbing the cake with a fork a couple of times while it is still baking, then remove to check texture. If the cake looks dry but creates crumbs on the fork, stop the baking. Alternatively, wait for the timer to finish.
- Cool the sponge cake down to room temperature. Put the perforated cakepan cover over the cakepan while cooling to reduce deflation & dehydration.
- Store the sponge cake into the fridge for continued cooling.
- A lot of the procedures are done gently in order to create & preserve the bubbles formed inside the batter. The bubbles are what gives the sponge cake is spongy texture.
- Beating the egg whites in the mixer creates bubbles.
- Whisking the yellow yolks also creates more bubbles.
- Folding the batter keeps the bubbles inside the batter.
- Stirring the batter will destroy the bubbles.
- Some ovens are very powerful. RTFM to find the optimal temperature for baking cakes. Be smart. Don't make guess work when there're instructions.
- A very solid cake which doesn't make crumbs at the fork can still be saved by rehydrating the cake with syrup. Don't look forward to this predicament.
- Patience is required. Running the procedure haphazardly will often lead to mistakes and the loss of the spongy texture which the cake is known for. Don't get too hasty.