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by The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Food team

Our easy sponge cake recipe is foolproof. With only five ingredients this basic cake recipe just needs your favourite icing and you're sorted. It's a small sponge cake, made in an 18cm or 7in cake tin.

If you are looking for a larger recipe for a different tin size, or with some additional icing, try our sponge cake calculator for the perfect fit to your equipment or style.

Cakes and baking

Preparation

The trick to getting a sponge cake to rise is to mix the wet ingredients together before gently folding in the dry ingredients to keep air in the mixture. The creaming method, in which butter and sugar are beaten together until pale, light and fluffy, is used to make sponge cakes such as the Victoria sponges and fruit cakes. Whisked sponges contain no butter, and are therefore lower in fat. They are made by whisking the eggs and sugar until thick in a bowl placed over a pan of simmering water. The final method for making sponge requires the yolks and sugar to be beaten together and the egg whites whisked separately. The stiff whites are then folded gradually into the yolk mixture, alternating a little at a time with the sifted flour. Some light fruited cakes such as tea loaf use the melt-and-mix method. The butter and sugar are melted together, then cooled. The remaining ingredients are then added to create a batter.

Other considerations

Vegans and people who are allergic to eggs can make egg-free cakes using substitutes including cocoa butter, xantham gum, agar agar, arrowroot, locust bean gum, carob, vegetarian gelatine, vegan egg replacer, soya flour, banana, potato flour, or even mashed-up banana, silken tofu and chocolate. For vegans, or those who are dairy-intolerant, butter can be replaced with good soya margarine. Adding baking powder will help the cake to rise.