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INFORMATION

Sponge

With its moist, light texture, sponge pastry is not only very versatile but it can also be refined or varied by the addition of flavouring, cocoa powder, cornflour (cornstarch), pieces of chocolate, raisins etc. And another important plus: it is incredibly easy to make because the ingredients are just stirred in one after the other. The basic ingredients for this type of pastry are butter or margarine, sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder.

This is how you make a sponge

Step 1: Prepare the baking sheet

Using a pastry brush, grease the baking tin generously and evenly with spreadable margarine or butter. In the case of a springform mould, you should only grease the base and not the sides so that the sponge does not slide down along the sides.

To make it easier to remove the cake from the tin, sprinkle some flour, breadcrumbs, ground almonds or other ground nuts after greasing the tin or mould and distribute them evenly by tipping and tapping it (photographs 1 and 2).

A rectangular tin can also be lined with baking parchment after greasing – this will make it easier to remove the cake from the tin. To ensure that the baking parchment fits the tin properly, place the base of the tin on the baking parchment and draw round it, then tip the tin on each side – one side after the other – and draw lines round them too. Finally cut out the corners, fold the lines along the bottom – and you have the liner for your tin!

Step 2: Mix the butter or margarine

Whether you are using butter or margarine it must spreadable, which means that it must be neither too liquid nor too hard. It is therefore important to take the butter or margarine out of the refrigerator in good time. Using a hand-mixer with a whisk attachment, mix the butter or margarine at the highest setting until it is soft.

Step 3: Add the sugar

Now mix together the sugar and vanilla sugar and little by little stir it into the butter or margarine until the mixture is smooth and even. In this case castor (superfine) sugar is preferable to granulated sugar because it dissolves more easily.

Step 4: Add the flavouring

Flavouring will give the cake a kick – provided that it is added in the right amount. In the case of flavour essence, it is essential to follow the manufacturer’s instructions shown on the bottle.

Step 5: Add the eggs

Add the eggs to the softened butter/margarine-sugar mixture one after the other. Whisk each egg into the mixture on the highest setting for about 1/2 minute before whisking in the next egg. If the eggs are too cold, the butter or margarine may curdle and the sponge may look grainy – but don’t worry, it will not influence the result.

Step 6: Mix together the flour and baking powder

The flour and baking powder must be mixed together well before being added to the egg-sugar- butter mixture. If you are also adding cornflour (cornstarch) or cocoa powder, these should be mixed with the flour now too, except in the case of marble cake where the cocoa powder is only added to one part of the sponge.