Easy Sponge Cake, Mascarpone Cream and Strawberry jam

This Easy Sponge Cake, Mascarpone Cream and Strawberry Jam. It’s so light, you won’t believe you made it at home. Follow the easy steps.

Delicious Sponge that anyone can make!

I can promise you will love this recipe. It would be very hard for you to mess this one up. Well not just you, anyone.

I gave this to a class of 20 beginners who all made this perfectly the first time. Can you believe that some students were so excited they made it when they got home and were successful again?

What is the secret to making a sponge?

There are a couple of important steps. Let me take you through them.

You will most definitely need a mixer of some sort. It can be a stand mixer or a handheld mixer. It doesn’t matter just something electric!

1. Weigh the ingredients. Always weigh. A sponge is a perfect balance of eggs, sugar, and dry ingredients. Sometimes they contain fat (butter, eggs, or oil). The fat in this recipe comes from the yolks
2. Preheat the oven
3. When making cakes and sponges, always prepare the cake tins before starting
4. Stick to the ingredients advised the first time you make a recipe and always if you don’t know how an ingredient affects a recipe.

What do I need to make this sponge?

• Plain flour, everyday medium protein flour
• Cornflour, light airy gluten free “cornstarch”
• baking powder for a little extra lift
• caster sugar, fine ground white granulated sugar, or superfine sugar
• Whole eggs, eggs should be at room temperature for the best volume. If you forget to get your eggs out of the fridge to come to room temperature here is what to do. Fill a bowl with warm water and sit the eggs in this for 5 to 10 minutes
• vanilla
• cream of tartar

What makes this sponge so good?

Well, it’s all in the balance.

This recipe calls for plain flour mixed with cornflour. (cornstarch) Cornflour is gluten-free and very light. (usually check your brand). This combines with plain flour (that does have gluten) and creates a symbiotic mixture. It’s a light but supportive base for eggs and sugar that has just the right amount of gluten for strength and soft flour for pillowy softness.

Sponges are all about air and eggs and sugar create that air. The flour is added just to bind those eggs and sugars together. That means good eggs are important. I always use free-range eggs that are extra-large.

The eggs I use amount to a total weight (once cracked) of approximately 50 gm. ( 1.8 oz) That’s 30 gm (just over an oz) of egg white and around 20 gm (0.7 oz) for the yolk give or take a couple of grams. This makes a difference in how your cakes will turn out. Some recipes just call for “eggs”. If your eggs are much smaller than mine you may need to add another. It is important that you have the correct ratio of eggs to the other ingredients.

What’s the secret to the best sponge

This brings us to the secret to the success of this sponge. The eggs are separated and the whites are beaten into almost a meringue-like mixture. This makes a very strong airy base before the yolks are added and the flour is folded through ever so gently.

That brings me to the flour. Flours should always be well combined by whisking together and then sifted at least twice. This aerates it, gets rid of any stray bits, and ensures it is well mixed.

Chemicals:

1. Eggwhites are mostly water and after whipping, the water can begin to leak back out of them. This looks a bit like washing up water with the foam on top and a pool of water beneath.
2. Sugar helps to stabilize egg whites, holding them together. Have you ever whipped up egg whites and they have separated and look like scrambled eggs? Sugar will prevent this from happening.

When do I add the sugar?

Sugar must be added gradually to this type of meringue. If the sugar is added too fast it will knock the air out of the meringue.

The thick and heavy meringue will take some time to regain its air and it will, but never fully. The resulting meringue is heavy and a bit runny too.

2. My Foolproof sponge cake also has baking powder. Not all sponges have this addition. For this mixture, it’s the secret chemical reaction that gives the sponge a double rise.

The shiny thick meringue in the picture below demonstrates how the egg yolks look when they are being added.

This sponge needs a perfect filling

For me, a soft and pillowy bed of sponge is perfect for a creamy jam filling. This jam is very fruity and not too sweet. It is a little unconventional for jam

Jam is usually cooked down with equal weights of sugar and fruit and is cooked down for some time. This mixture has less sugar and is thickened with a little cornflour to make a really strawberry flavoured “filling” jam.

All of the ingredients for the mascarpone cream filling are whisked together. Don’t be shy with the vanilla here as it really makes all the difference to the taste.

Remember to never over whisk mascarpone or cream for that matter. You will not over whisk the cream if you stop mixing a little bit before you think it is ready. It’s better to finish it, whisking by hand if it needs more stirring. You know how butter is made right? (hint: churning cream). You need nice firm peaks, not butter.

Please don’t think you have to pipe your cream onto this cake. It’s a great way to add the cream without the cream layer mixing with the jam layer.

If you want to make this recipe in a smaller cake tin you can! It will make two taller layers that you can cut in half to have a 4 layer sponge cake. If this is for you, you will need a 16 cm or 6.5 inch tin. Twice as delicious don’t you think?

Why not try these recipes TOO

Chocolate Almond cake- gluten free

Chocolate Mousse- warm baked

Winter Pavlova with caramel and passionfruit

Soft Pavlova Roll with Cherries