Mary Berry bakes lemon meringue and strawberry cupcakes
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Sponge cake is one of the most versatile and easy-to-make desserts, with endless flavour combinations to experiment with. From a fruity Victoria sandwich to a rich chocolate cake, there are so many ways to switch-up this simple vanilla sponge cake recipe. Here’s the quickest way to make your own basic sponge, and the best ingredients to add in to make it even more impressive.
How to make a sponge cake
This tasty tea-time treat is perfect for the bank holiday weekend, and can be made from scratch in less than one hour from start to finish.
To make your sponge cake, you will need:
- Two 20cm cake tins lined with baking paper
- An electric whisk
- 225g unsalted butter or margarine
- 225g golden caster sugar
- 225g self raising flour, sieved
- Four large eggs
- One teaspoon vanilla extract
- A splash of milk
- Icing sugar for dusting
- Optional fillings of jam, lemon curd, whipped cream, butter cream
Combine the ingredients
Start by heating the oven to 80C/160C fan/gas 4 before lining the cake tins with baking parchment.
A small amount of butter can be used to grease the tins to help the paper stick around the base and edges.
Combine the sugar and butter into a pale, fluffy cream and crack the eggs into the bowl one at a time.
Continue to whisk the butter, sugar and eggs before slowly sieving in the flour a little at a time.
Add a splash of milk to the mix alongside one teaspoon of vanilla extract to loosen up the mixture.
Divide and bake the mixture
Pour the cake batter into the prepared tins, dividing the mixture evenly between the two.
Roughly spread it out in the tin for an even bake.
Bake in the centre of your preheated oven for 20-30 minutes, using a skewer to test the inside of the cake after around 15 minutes of baking.
The sponge should be a light golden colour and the skewer should come out clean once it is cooked.
Leave the cakes to cool
Remove the springy sponges from the oven and leave them to cool for 10 minutes before taking them out of the tins.
Leave the freshly baked sponges on a wire rack to completely cool down before adding any fillings.
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For a chocolate sponge cake, simply reduce the amount of flour and add in some cocoa powder.
Dr Oetker’s chocolate sponge recipe can be made in the same way as the vanilla sponge, with slightly different quantities of dry ingredients.
The recipe is as follows:
- 225g unsalted butter or margarine
- 225g golden caster sugar
- 175g self raising flour, sieved
- 50g fine, dark cocoa powder
- Four large eggs
- One teaspoon vanilla extract
- A splash of milk
- Icing sugar for dusting
For a lemon sponge cake, simply add the zest of two lemons to the basic vanilla recipe.
What to add to the sponge cakes
While the cakes can be enjoyed as they are with just a hint of vanilla, these fluffy sponges will need a solid filling to sandwich the two halves together.
Lemon curd and jam should be spread over a light layer of freshly whipped cream or a sweet buttercream on the inner layers of the cakes.
To make your own plain butter cream, you will need:
- 200g soft, unsalted butter
- 500g sifted icing sugar
Slowly add the icing sugar to a bowl of soft butter and whisk until thick and creamy.
Add a few drops of vanilla extract or lemon flavouring to change the taste of the icing, or two tablespoons of cocoa powder and a dash of milk for a chocolate buttercream.
You can add more for a deeper flavour, just make sure the consistency is balanced well to keep it thick but spreadable.
Simply fill the cakes and sandwich them together before dusting the top with icing sugar.
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