Name: Vanilla Sponge Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 225 g / 2 sticks unsalted butter (, cut into 8 pieces and softened); 4 large eggs ((55 - 65g / 2 - 2.5 oz each), at room temperature); 1⁄2 cup / 125 ml milk ((whole or low fat, not no fat), room temperature); 2 tsp vanilla extract; 1 3/4 cups / 265g plain flour ((all purpose flour, 7 oz) (Note 1)); 1/4 cup cornflour / cornstarch ((Note 1)); 2 tsp baking powder; 1 1/2 cups / 330g caster sugar / superfine sugar ((normal white sugar also ok)); 3/4 tsp salt; 2 1/2 cups / 625 ml whipping cream; 2 tbsp white sugar; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 400 g/ 14 oz strawberries (, halved (1 1/2 punnets))

An exceptional, yet simple Vanilla Sponge Cake. Adapted from a master Cook’s Illustrated recipe, this is made with pantry staples, has a velvety, tender crumb and keeps well for 3 days. An essential addition to every recipe collection!

Moist and tender Vanilla Sponge Cake

I call this a plain-jane Vanilla Sponge Cake, but it’s really anything but that. Everyone should have a classic vanilla sponge cake in their repertoire, and it took me many years to find the “perfect” one.

This is a classic, simple Vanilla Sponge Cake that is made with basic ingredients – eggs, milk, butter, flour, sugar, vanilla, baking powder and salt. That’s it. No sour cream, no buttermilk – these are not pantry staples in my world – or any other schmancy ingredients. Yes adding sour cream and/or buttermilk makes an even more tender, more moist cake. But I wanted to share a truly great Vanilla Sponge Cake that is made with just pantry staples.

I have a soft spot for old fashioned Vanilla sponge cakes. I am pretty sure the Women’s Weekly Best Ever Sponge was the first cake I ever (attempted?) to make. 🙂 Freshly made, they are lovely, albeit a wee bit dry for my taste. But the biggest issue I’ve always had is that after 12 hours, the sponge is incredibly dry. Even slathered with copious amounts of cream and frosting can’t hide it.

This recipe I’m sharing today is made with the same ingredients as old fashioned Vanilla Sponge Cakes, but there’s one very important step that you won’t see in any Women’s Weekly recipe books from the 1980’s: beating softened butter into the dry ingredients. THIS is the secret to a moist, tender sponge cake made without sour cream or buttermilk.

How do I know this?

Because this is a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. 🙂 They’ve gone and done all the hard work with the recipe testing for us.

Regular readers know I’m never going to win any awards in the cake decorating category. I’m much more focussed on the body of the cake – getting that sponge right. So I kept this simple and just slathered on lots of cream and and sandwiched it with strawberries. In addition to adding some lovely fresh juicy flavours into the cake, the strawberries also stop the cream from oozing out of the cake when you cut into it.

You’ll see in the video. 🙂

Happy weekend everyone! Hope you have a lovely one. I’m off to a festival of some sort – for a friends’ birthday. I’m not really a festival-type gal, so it will be an experience. I don’t even know what the festival is for – music, I’m guessing. Guess I should probably leave my stilettos behind. 😉 – Nagi x

WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT

Vanilla Sponge Cake recipe video!

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Vanilla Sponge Cake

Author: Nagi

Prep: 15 mins

Cook: 25 mins

Total: 40 mins

Sweet Baking

4.79 from 41 votes

Servings

Recipe video above. An exceptional, classic Vanilla Sponge Cake made with basic pantry staples. Tender crumb, moist, keeps well for 3 days. Slightly adapted from a Cook's Illustrated master recipe - refer to notes. I prefer making this recipe using a handheld beater rather than a stand mixer.

Ingredients

225 g / 2 sticks unsalted butter , cut into 8 pieces and softened

Wet:

4 large eggs (55 - 65g / 2 - 2.5 oz each), at room temperature
1⁄2 cup / 125 ml milk (whole or low fat, not no fat), room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract

Dry:

1 3/4 cups / 265g plain flour (all purpose flour, 7 oz) (Note 1)
1/4 cup cornflour / cornstarch (Note 1)
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups / 330g caster sugar / superfine sugar (normal white sugar also ok)
3/4 tsp salt

Strawberries & Cream:

2 1/2 cups / 625 ml whipping cream
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
400 g/ 14 oz strawberries , halved (1 1/2 punnets)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180C/350F (standard) or 160C/320F (fan / convection). Put the rack in the middle of the oven.
Butter 2 x 20cm / 8" cake pans (Note 2). Line the base with baking paper.
Place Wet ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
Place Dry ingredients in a bowl and use a handheld beater on speed 1 (slowest) to quickly whisk.
Add 1/3 of the butter, then put the beater whisk in the butter, and mix using speed 1. Once the butter is incorporated a bit, speed up to 5 and whisk for 10 seconds.
Add another 1/3 of the butter then repeat, then add remaining butter and repeat again. It should look like wet sand (see video / photos in post).
Add half the Wet mixture, beat until incorporated. Add remaining Wet mixture, then beat on speed 5 (medium) until almost completely smooth.
Divide between cake pans, smooth surface (it levels out in the oven), then bake for 25 minutes.
A skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean but moist.
Cool on cooling rack for at least 15 minutes then remove cake from pan.

Frosting / Decorating with Strawberries & Cream:

Optional: Use a serrated knife (I use a bread knife) to cut the top off each cake to make it completely flat. This makes neat layers when you cut into the cake.
Place cream, vanilla and sugar in a bowl. Beat on high with a handheld beater or stand mixer until firm peaks form.
If piping little swirls around the edge like in the photos, transfer 1 cup of cream into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle.
Place a cake on a serving platter. Spread a thin layer of cream over the top.
Cover with strawberries, cut side down.
Top with 1/3 of the cream.
Place 2nd cake on top. Cover top and sides with remaining cream. Pipe cream around the edge.
Decorate with remaining strawberries, as desired.

Recipe Notes:

1. The original recipe calls for 2 cups cake flour. I use a combination of plain flour and cornflour which is a substitute for cake flour because this recipe is my basic vanilla sponge cake recipe and I want to make it using pantry staples. Cake flour is not a staple in my pantry. Cake flour or cornflour + plain flour makes the crumb of cakes more tender and almost "velvety" than just using plain flour.

2. CAKE PAN SIZE: The original Cook's Illustrated recipe says to make this in 3 x 20cm/8" pans or 2 x 23cm/9" pans. If you level off the cake surface, as I do in the video, so each layer is neat and flat, then I think 2 x 20cm/8" pans is better, otherwise the layers get too thin. However, if you do not plan to cut the top of the cake to make the surface flat, then you can use 3 x 20cm/8" pans or 2 x 23cm/9" pans.

3. Recipe SOURCE: This is adapted from a Cook's Illustrated recipe. The original recipe is made with just cake flour (see note 1). The butter is chopped into 16 pieces and added in 1 piece at a time. I find it easier to do it in 3 batches and didn't notice a difference in outcome. Also see Note 2 regarding cake pan size.

4. Cream: I know it sounds like alot, but if you want to have cream in the middle, top and sides as well as some to pipe for decoration, you really need this much! If you don't do the piped decorations on top, you can reduce the cream by 1/2 cup / 125ml.

5. STANDMIXER: Even on the lowest speed, there will be some "flour dust" so you will either need to use a guard to stop the flour flying up everywhere or do as per the original recipe and chop the butter into 16 small pieces and add them one at a time, beating for around 1 minute on low speed, increasing to high until it looks like what you see in the video.

6. Different COUNTRIES: Measuring cups and spoons varies slightly between America and most of the rest of the world (e.g. Aus/ NZ/Europe). For most recipes, the difference is not enough to affect the recipe, but for baking recipes, it can be the difference between success and fail. This recipe has been tested using both US and "rest of world" measures so just follow the ingredient weights. Only exception is Japan - please use weights, not cups.

7. STORING: This cake keeps well in an airtight container for 3 days without the sponge going dry. If decorated with cream, store in the fridge if the temperature is > 20C / 70F. bring to room temperature before serving.

8. Nutrition is for the cake only, excluding cream for 12 servings. Including the cream, it is 403 calories per serving with 33g fat.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 73gCalories: 257kcal (13%)

Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @RecipeTinEats.

LIFE OF DOZER

You do not want to know how big the puddle on the floor was….EEEEWWWW!!!! (watch me teasing him with this in the video!!)

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217 Comments

Victoria says
February 10, 2020 at 3:55 am
Can I use evaporated milk in the cake recipe?
- Nagi says
  February 10, 2020 at 12:20 pm
  Hi Victoria, I haven’t tried to be honest, I’m not sure if it will make the cake more dense. Love to know if it works though – if you give it a try! N x
Yva says
February 6, 2020 at 5:10 am
Thank you Nagi for this amazing recipe! Made this with your chocolate buttercream recipe and it was sooooo addictive! The cake was GONE in a very, very short time (I myself could not stop eating it, very dangerous indeed)..
My very discerning 11-year-old niece took a few bites and said, “..if you were to enter this cake into a competition——it would win”.
And thank you for being such an inspiration- leaving the corporate world to pursue what you love..and making a success of it!
Am on the brink of a career change myself (after 18 years in an industry that I didn’t particularly love)- so thank you for taking the leap and gifting us with all these wonderful recipes 😀 You have another fan over here, your website is now my go-to now for all my weekday dinners and baking 😊👌❤️from NZ
Thilini says
December 28, 2019 at 5:34 pm
Hi Nagi, this recipe looks great! Hoping to try this very soon. These pictures are mouth watering 🙂
I need an advice from you though. Can I bake this cake in a rice cooker as well? I might have to adjust the cook time, right? But have you tried this in a rice cooker?
Nidhi says
December 23, 2019 at 11:48 pm

This is the best recipe ever. People go nuts. The first time I made it I finished about 75% of the cake myself because it was so tasty.
Do want to ask if I could make this a rum cake? Would it affect if I add rum into the batter and then also as a glaze?
Ann says
December 15, 2019 at 8:37 pm

This recipe is da bomb! The texture was sooooo good, still fluffy even just right out from the fridge. I also substituted some honey for sugar and it adds a subtle layer of fragrance to the cake!
- Nagi says
  December 16, 2019 at 8:44 am
  I’m so glad you loved it Ann, love the idea of honey in it!
Rafat S hussain says
December 11, 2019 at 1:52 am
I tried this cake today n it was yummy.. thank u very much for the lovely and easy recipe
- Nagi says
  December 11, 2019 at 4:13 pm
  You’re so welcome Rafat!
Sabina Jarbandhan says
December 2, 2019 at 9:43 am
Hey I’m excited to make this recipe I wanted to make it for my brother’s birthday, I was wondering if this can be baked in a half sheet pan instead of the rounds?
- Nagi says
  December 2, 2019 at 7:10 pm
  Hi Sabina, yes you can but you’d need to adjust the cook times accordingly – N x
Jyothi says
November 30, 2019 at 4:04 am

Hi Nagi. I tried this recipe and it’s just fantastic. I use sponge cakes to make tiramisu. Can I use this recipe for that? Also if I want to make bigger cake. How long should I leave it in the oven?
- Nagi says
  November 30, 2019 at 5:47 am
  Oh that sounds great Jyothi, this will definitely work for that. How big did you want to make the cake – it will just need to be in the oven longer – N x
  - Jyothi says
    November 30, 2019 at 5:38 pm
    I want to make it 12-16 servings
Gwen says
November 6, 2019 at 2:20 am
hi Nagi,
I am planning to make a birthday cake with your recipe. Picturing it with a bit of height, I’d like to make 3 layers of 6″ pan, how would you alter the ingredients quantity?
Thanks,
Gwen
Cheryl says
October 29, 2019 at 8:08 am
Nagi, I love this cake but the mixture curdles every time I make it. Ingredients are always room temperature or close to. Any ideas?
- Nagi says
  October 29, 2019 at 7:39 pm
  Hi Cheryl, sorry you are having issues here – at what point is it curdling?
  - Cheryl says
    October 30, 2019 at 8:13 pm
    Once all the ingredients are in and it comes together, then it starts breaking down. I still use it but think it would be much nicer if it didn’t break down