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Mock Sponge Cake
3 eggs 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup cold water 1 1/2 cups flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking-powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Beat the eggs, add the sugar and beat well. Add the water, alternating with the sifted dry ingredients, then the vanilla. Bake in an ungreased pan in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.).
A hot-water sponge leavened partly by baking powder rather than by egg foam alone, which makes it far more forgiving than a true sponge cake. The one thing that matters is the pan: leave it ungreased so the batter can climb and cling.
- Oven350F, as the recipe states. No preheat is mentioned but the oven should be up to temperature before the batter goes in.
- Beating the eggsWhole eggs, beaten together, then beaten well with the sugar until thick and pale. Much of the lift comes from this foam, though the baking powder here does real work too; a few minutes with an electric mixer is not too long.
- Ungreased panNot an oversight. A greased pan lets the delicate batter slip back down the sides as it rises. Use an 8- or 9-inch tube pan or a plain 8-inch square pan, and cool the cake in the pan before loosening the edge with a thin knife.
- Alternating additionsAdd the water and the sifted flour mixture in alternating additions as directed, folding rather than stirring, and stop as soon as the flour disappears. Overworking at this stage collapses the foam.
- FlourThe recipe specifies only 'flour'. Cake flour will give a finer crumb; all-purpose works and yields a slightly firmer cake. Sift with the baking powder and salt as directed.
- TimeNone is given. Expect 25 to 30 minutes in a tube pan, a little more in a square pan; the cake is done when it springs back from a light press and pulls slightly from the sides.
- CoolingInvert the pan and let the cake hang until fully cold. Warm sponge cake compresses under its own weight.
- YieldOne modest cake, six to eight servings. Best the day it is baked, plain or with fruit and cream.