Sponge Cake

Cake recipe adapted from Indian Mom in Germany

Cake

• 4 eggs

• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

• 40g sugar

• Pinch of salt

• 50g oil

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 60g milk

• 90g flour

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Whipped Cream

• 4 cups heavy whipping cream

• Pinch of cream of tartar

• Sugar to taste

• Vanilla extract to taste

Filling / Garnish

• Sliced strawberries, mango, berries, etc.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Whisk egg yolks with sugar and salt. Whisk in oil, milk, and vanilla. Stir in flour and baking powder.

Beat egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar. Beat until stiff peaks form.

Fold 1/3 of egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture. Fold in the rest of the egg whites until combined.

Pour batter into a lightly greased 9” circle pan with parchment lining the bottom. Smooth top of batter and tap pan on counter top before placing into the oven. Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until done.

Cool cake then split in half. Fill with whipped cream and fresh fruit. Cover with whipped cream and garnish with fresh fruit.

Notes

I wanted to make a cake similar to the ones we would buy for my grandmother from Chinatown. I looked at photos of different sponge cakes with recipes and also watched YouTube videos. The one from Indian Mom in Germany looked like it would have a crumb and similar to the cakes from Chinatown.

The cake did not rise much and was pale in color. The crumb of the cake is similar to what I was expecting based on the video, but I was not expecting the cake to taste strongly of egg. The cake itself is not very sweet and most of the sweetness of the cake comes from the whipped cream.

The pinch of cream of tartar stabilized the whipped cream very well and I was glad that I had used it. It was challenging to assemble and decorate the cake when it was 80F in the kitchen. I referenced this video I had recorded of Chef Ng piping shells while I was decorating the cake.

Four cups of heavy whipping cream was enough to fill and cover a two-layer cake and also pipe shells around the top border of the cake. However there was about 1 1/2 cups of whipped cream left over.

I did not have a container in which to transport the cake. I also did not have bamboo skewers. Instead I stuck several pieces of spaghetti into the cake then wrapped the cake and plate in plastic wrap. I did not want the plastic wrap to stick to the whipped cream and I needed to protect the cake from the ash that was falling outside. The cake was served several hours later than I expected, and by then the spaghetti stuck inside the cake had absorbed so much moisture that it was breaking off from the exposed parts of spaghetti that I was removing. I had to warn my family that their slices of cake may contain raw pasta!