American Sponge cake is one of the most popular forms of cake. It can be served on it’s own just like that; also it tastes awesome with a dusting of icing sugar or with fresh fruits and a drizzle of fruit syrup and fresh cream.
It is also used as a base for number of decorative cakes. Sponge cakes are usually well aired and quite firm in structure and once baked it looks somewhat like a sponge. In a good quality sponge cake one can see the air bubbles, which makes the cake light and fluffy. As per the sponge cake recipe the cake can be divided distinctively into two categories. The most popular sponge cake recipe used all over the world is the European or Victorian sponge cake. The other category is the American sponge cake, which is a slight variation of its European version.
Both the sponge cake recipes however, lead to soft and airy sponge cakes. The main ingredients in a European sponge cake recipe are flour, which can be self-raising, or plain flour; eggs, butter, sugar and baking powder (if using plain flour). Any kind of flavourings and ingredients can be added to this basic recipe. To make an American sponge cake the ingredients and recipe is a bit different. The sponge cake recipe used for American sponge cake requires cake flour as one of its key ingredients. This flour is quite different from the regular flour or the self-raising flour. Cake flour is a typical form of flour manufactured and found mainly in the US. Cake flour has a very low protein content (approximately 8 – 10%) and is very finely milled.
Another characteristic of the cake flour is that it is bleached. The bleaching of the flour has quite a few effects on the sponge cake recipe. The bleached flour usually lets the cake take on the colour of the egg yolk thus resulting in the cake to turn yellow or pale cream. The bleaching also makes the flour resist any liquid to be mixed but works well when the fat is incorporated. This bleaching effect also helps the air bubbles in the sponge cake recipe to stay stable for longer. The other unique feature about the American sponge cake is that the sponge cake recipe requires hardly any butter or oil. The recipe on the other hand uses more eggs compared to the number of eggs used in a typical sponge cake recipe and the eggs yolks and whites are beaten separately. The egg whites when beaten well, incorporates more air than the egg yolk and this in turn makes the cake fluffier. The American sponge cake also requires baking powder, which is a typical rising agent and is required in the European version of the cake as well. For cake lovers who are health conscious as well, American sponge cake is a good option. As the sponge cake recipe does not have any fat, its calorie content is lower than other varieties of cakes. To make the cake more flavourful, different flavourings can be added to this sponge cake but it tastes really well when a citrus flavor (orange, lemon, lime etc.) is added to the batter.
Best American Sponge Cake
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AMERICAN SPONGE CAKE
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins
Ingredients
- This recipe is for a 24 cm/ 10 inches baking pan
- Eggs- 6 large
- Cake flour ( sifted)- 1 cup/ 125 gm/ 4.4 oz/ 0.27 lb
- ( If you can't find it in your local supermarket, just take out 2 tbsp of all purpose flour from the cup and replace with 2 tbsp of cornstarch).
- White sugar- 1 cup / 200 gm/ 0,4 lb/ 7.1 oz
- Baking powder- ½ tsp
- Salt- ½tsp
- Water - 2 tbsp
- Vanilla extract- 2 tsp
- Orange zest - 2 tbsp
- Cream of tartar- ½ tsp
Instructions
- I used my multi-cooker for baking this cake. If you plan to bake it in the oven, then preheat it to 180 C/ 350 F. Grease your baking pan.
- Place rack in the center of your oven.
- Take out the cold eggs from the fridge and immediately separate them. Cover with the cling wrap or foil and leave for at least 20 minutes.
- Combine cake flour, salt, baking powder. Sift them.
- Divide the sugar equally. Because I am gonna bake this cake in a 10 inches baking pan, I will need 1 cup of sugar. ½ cup I will use for egg whites and ½ for egg yolks. Place sugar and egg yolks in a large bowl, start beating on high speed until they turn into thick pale yellow batter. Add water, orange zest, vanilla extract. Beat 10 seconds more.
- Now it is time to beat egg white. Place them in the CLEAN and DRY bowl of your stand mixer. Beat on medium speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and continue beating. Gradually add sugar. Beat till stiff peaks.
- Sift ¼ of flour over egg yolks, combine well. Pour it over egg white, gently fold in egg whites. Add the remaining flour and fold until incorporated.
- Transfer the batter into greased baking pan, bake 30-40 minutes. I f you plan to bake it in the multi-cooker, just transfer the batter into multi-cooker greased pan. Set " baking' 1 hour.
- I used for decorating : "Mactop" vegetable whipping cream, wilton 2D Tip, wilton colors, canned pineapple and fresh kiwis.
Notes
If using a smaller pan 6 inches/ 15 cm:
Eggs- 3 large
Cake flour ( sifted)- ½ cup/ 62 gm/ 2.2 oz/ 0.13 lb
White sugar- ½ cup / 100 gm/ 0,22 lb/ 3.53 oz
Baking powder- ¼ tsp
Salt- ¼ tsp
Water - 1 tbsp
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
Orange zest - 1 tbsp
Cream of tartar- ½ tsp
If using a 9 inches/ 22 cm baking pan
Eggs- 5 large
Cake flour ( sifted)- ¾ cup/ 93 gm/ 3.3 oz/ 0.2 lb
White sugar- ¾ cup / 150 gm/ 0,3 lb/ 5.29 oz
Baking powder- ¼ tsp
Salt- ¼ tsp
Water - 1.5 tbsp
Vanilla extract- 1.5 tsp
Orange zest - 1.5 tbsp
Cream of tartar- ⅓ tsp
1. Use large eggs for this recipe.
Weight of 1 large egg in shell- 57 gm
Weight without shell- 50 gm.
2. Use only fresh eggs. To taste your eggs for freshness , put them in slightly salted water, if they sink, it means they are fresh.
3. It is really easy to separate cold eggs.
4. But to get the maximum volume, eggs should be at room temperature. So first, separate them, cover and leave for 20 minutes.
5. The bowl of your electrical mixture should be be DRY. and CLEAN.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Cake Recipes
- Cuisine: American
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