Sponge Cake

This recipe was given to me by a great lady. Her name was Dasha & I love to make this cake and remember her every time I do. I am always nervous that the cake won’t rise..& when it does I know that she would be proud…:))

This cake seems to work every time…it must just be the recipe. I have made other sponge cakes & they are somewhat hit and miss. usually a miss! And I have to make them again & again. But not this one!

The recipe is straight forward. Dasha gave me the recipe just off the top of her head. She had made it so many times that she didn’t even have to think about it! She told me to have the eggs at room temperature..but I never remember to do that..& when I decide to bake a cake..I usually want to do it now..so the eggs are from the fridge. I bet that if the eggs were room temperature the theory is that they beat up better…but I don’t have a problem with this recipe either way… if you take out the eggs from the fridge first..then get everything else ready..they are a bit more ‘room temperature’.

The key to this cake I think is handling all of the ingredients gently….

I love this cake & had a special ( for me) relationship with Dasha, so I hope you like this recipe & enjoy it!

Here it is

Ingredients

For the Cake

10 eggs, room temperature

salt… a pinch

1 cup sugar..divided … 1/2 cup ( for the egg whites), 1/2 cup for the cake batter)

1 cup flour

For the filling

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cocoa

Method

You will need an angle food pan or tube pan DO NOT GREASE THE PAN

Preheat oven to 350f

Make the filling & set it aside…Just mix the sugar, cinnamon & cocoa together & set aside

1. Separate the eggs… Put the egg yolks into a bowl..you will be using them in your mix master soon   Put the whites into the bowl of a mix master, or a large bowl that you can whip them up in
2. Beat the egg whites until frothy, add a pinch of salt & add 1/2 cup of sugar gradually while beating the whites stiff…
3. Set this aside…I put the whites, very gently, into another bowl because I needed the bowl from the mix master…
4. Now beat the egg yolks with 1/2 cup of sugar until they are light in colour.
5. Next, we will mix the yolks & whites together. There are a couple of ways to do this. One by hand… or I added the whites to the mixing bowl, & with my mixer on the lowest setting I mixed the beaten whites & yolk mixture together,… but I had to use a spatula too since I did not want to deflate the whites too much
6. Fold in 1 cup os flour by adding it very gradually to the white/yolk mixture… I SIFTED THE FLOUR INTO THE BATTER….use a spatula or again your mixer on really slow. Use a spatula to bring the bottom batter up so that it is all mixed …but gently
7. OK… take half of the cake batter  & put it into the cake pan, evenly   do not tap the pan on the counter to even out the batter like you wold with a regular cake…just use the back of a spoon or your spatula to very gently even out the batter in the pan
8. Sprinkle the sugar/ cinnamon/cocoa  filling evenly over the batter in the cake pan
9. Top the filling with the remainder of the cake batter….evenly
10. Now, use a knife & marble the cake by putting the knife into the batter & then making a swoop kind of motion to bring the filling through the batter….do this all around the cake…but gently
11. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes
12. Take it out of the oven & turn it upside down to cool…if you are using an angel food pan that has feet..great…just rest the cake on the feet…if you don’t. use flat-bottomed mugs or glasses & balance the edge of the cake pan on them.  I ended up using on glass as the cake pan sat nicely on it & was not woobly..Cool this cake completely
13. Using a knife…loosen the cake from the edges of the cake pan & the middle section. & take the cake out…I had to use my hand very gently to help pry the cake out of the pan on the sides…
14. I put this cake on a cake serving dish & dug in!! yum!

Enjoy!