The Best Chocolate Sponge Cake

Making sponge cake could be challenging sometimes, especially for an amateur baker like me.  I had gone through so many sponge cake recipes, before I finally found the easiest way with 100% successful rate of every single time I attained it.

So, the best way is to prepare all your ingredients before starting the cooking process.  First get two of 7 inches round pan ready by spraying them with non-stick baking spray or otherwise you can use margarine.  But make sure to brush them thoroughly to avoid sticking.  Then, gather dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder in a bowl, give them a stir, and leave a side.  Measure the required sugar in a separate glass or bowl, then leave it and we will come back into it later.  Next, melt your butter, it is better to melt the butter before you start whisking the egg because the melted butter will slightly cool by then you pour in to the egg mixture.

In a clean dry bowl, crack three eggs into and whisk until it's starting to foam.  Then slowly add the sugar in.  Keep whisking until the ribbon-stage is obtained.  It is when the ribbon doesn't go away for three seconds when you lift up the whisk.

Are we done yet? Not yet.

You can see from the picture above, if your egg mixture looks like this, it means you are only half-way through whisking.  All together, it requires 15 minutes of whisking.  Because this recipe only uses baking powder for their sinking-protection agent, therefore whisking egg mixture until reaching ribbon-stage is very crucial.  Unless when we use SP or ovalet, then it would be a different story.

Are we done yet? Yes, we certainly are.

Once whisking is complete, pour in your butter all at once and carefully mix with rubber spatula.

Then dump your flour mixture in two batches and gently fold until it is incorporated and no lump left.  But be very careful to not over mix them.  If you overmix the batter, then it will leave you with sinking sponge cakes. 

Pour the batter in the greased mould and bake in the pre-heated oven of 180 degree for about 20 minutes.  You only can open the oven door just before the cake is done or at least no opening oven door in the first fifteen minutes.  This is like the beautiful princess in the castle.  "You can only look, but no touching".

Once it is cooked, take them out from the oven and leave the cakes to cool slightly before removing them out from the pan.

I like to make my sponge cake a few days in advance.  But before I keep them in the freezer, I make sure that the cake is fully covered with cling wrap, so the moisture stays and you will still have soft and moist cake later.  The benefit of keeping them in the freezer is not only when cutting the cake but also help holding the cream when icing them.  And of course time-saver too.

This cake is for my little son birthday.  With this pandemic is going on in the outside world, I need to make his birthday cake this time.  He requested for his now favorite hero, which is Sonic the hedgehog.  I'm not good at making icing so I cheatedly use the plastic figures.  Hahahaha...

For the icing I use the buttercream recipe with adding some crumbled oreo biscuit.  Ta... Da... it becomes cookies and cream buttercream.  Yummm...

I made them a very super thin layer of buttercream because buttercream is much heavier than fresh whipped cream.  Tiny bit will make them taste wonderful.  You put thick cream then it will go to the opposite direction.

Not the best look but looking at my son reaction, it definitely paid off all my hard work.  Proud mom.

Then another decoration on top is little sugary meringue.  The recipe for this will be in my next post.
Thank you for reading my blog.

Have you ever made a kid birthday cake before? Share with me your story, I really enjoy reading other people experience with baking.

** You can make white sponge cake out of this recipe.  Just take out the cocoa powder and put the same amount of flour instead.  So, for vanilla sponge cake, you will need 100 gr of all purpose flour and and extra of 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Chocolate sponge cake recipe Eggs 3 Caster sugar 75 gr All purpose flour 80 gr Cocoa powder 20 gr Baking powder 1 tsp Unsalted butter, melted 40 gr A pinch of salt Method 1. Spread thoroughly two of 7 inch round cake pans with     margarine, if non-stick baking spray not available. 2. Prepare those dry ingredients: flour, salt, cocoa & baking powder     and stir them together in a bowl. *For me shifting flour is not particularly important. However, if you   want to get an ultimate unlumpy sponge texture then you better do so. 3. Crack 3 eggs into a mixer bowl and whisk until slightly foamy. 4. Slowly pour sugar into and continue whisking for about 15 minutes     or until the mixture forms a ribbon stage, where it doesn't     dissapear for about three secons when you lift off the whisk. 5. Add the melted butter and carefully fold using spatula 6. Add half of the flour mixture in the egg mixture and carefully fold.     Then add another half and keep folding until all flour is incoporated.     **Remember to never overmix otherwise it will lose their air and     the cake will be dense. 7. Pour the batter in the greased baking pan and bake in a preheated oven     of 180⁰c for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the     middle comes out clean.     **Do not open the oven door in the first 10 minutes or else it will      disturb the rise of the cake. 8. Once the cake is baked, remove from the oven and let it sit for      five minutes before removing it from the pan. 9. Then, remove it from the pan onto the cooling rack. Not too long. 10. Cover the cake with cling wrap and keep in the box before you freeze it.      ** wrap it to retain cake moisture