Featherlight Sponge Cake Recipes

FEATHERLIGHT CHOCOLATE CAKE

Steps:

• Serving suggestion: Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve with milk
• Arrange a rack in the upper 1/3 of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.
• Butter and flour a bundt pan or tube pan. (You can use a mixture of cocoa powder and flour instead of flour, to prevent white spots on the cake.)
• In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, or using a hand mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Mix in the sugar. One at a time, mix in the eggs, then the vanilla, occasionally scraping down the mixing bowl.
• Meanwhile, in another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt.
• Add 1/3 of the flour mixture; then 1/3 of the ice water. Repeat, mixing after each addition. Transfer the batter to the pan and bake until springy and dry, about 40 to 45 minutes.
• Let cool in the pan on a rack, then carefully turn the cake out. Just before serving, sift confectioners' sugar over the top. Serve with very cold milk!
• Notes about the recipe: When I developed this recipe I was just looking for a good, reliable dark cocoa cake that could sit on the counter over the weekend and be enjoyed in slivers, craving by craving. This cake is really moist and keeps for days. I just finished one that's been hanging around the kitchen for 6 days! You could frost it with creamy white icing but it hardly needs it. My friend Lana's mom June was one of the best cooks I knew as a kid in the '60s and she did a cake by the same name, though the recipe handed down to me from her daughter is a bit different.

FEATHERLIGHT SPONGE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/325 degrees F fan-forced. Grease and flour two deep 8-inch round cake pans.
• Beat eggs and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until thick, creamy and sugar is dissolved. Transfer mixture to large bowl; fold in triple-sifted dry ingredients. Divide mixture between pans.
• Bake sponges about 20 minutes. Turn, top-side up, onto parchment-covered wire rack to cool.
• Sandwich sponges with jam and cream.

FEATHER SPONGE CAKE (AMY'S GRANDMA'S)

Steps:

• Beat egg yolks until thick and lemon colored.
• Add water and continue beating until thick.
• Gradually beat in sugar, then the extracts.
• Fold in flour, a little at a time.
• Beat egg whites until foamy, add the cream of tarter and beat until they form glossy peaks.
• Fold this carefully into the cake mixture.
• Bake in a 10" ungreased angel food cake pan ina 350 degree oven for approximately 1 hour.
• Invert pan to cool.