Comments on: Basic sponge cake / Basic chocolate sponge cake

by: Bijay

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:18:55 +0000

I agree with Laura all ingredients have to be the gram thats how i bake my cake and my mum has always done it like that since i was young.The onlt thing i wish to know now is actually the folding of the flour?

by: Laura

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:49:50 +0000

Hi,

I haven’t tried your sponge recipe but I thought that a basic sponge must be done with equal weight of ingredients (so for example 150gr flour, 150gr butter, 150gr sugar) and for each 50gr 1 egg so in the 150gr example 3 eggs are used. And that’s the basic sponge.

Is it not so?

by: Gunnar

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 04:13:44 +0000

Hi - I just tried to make a sponge cake again - I’ve tried for twentyfive years, but it can’t be done in the US. I used to make sponge cakes in Sweden all the time, no problem - they would never fail…when I discovered that it couldn’t be done in the US I started to search for answers and found some from very knowledgeble sources…but that was a few years ago, but the essence was tat there is a difference in the quality of flour and perhaps other things, that make it very difficult to make a sponge cake in the US.
It is true, that there are many commercial outfits that seem to be able to make them - in Santa Monica, California, we had a place that used to make them perfectly, but I never learned how…
When you serach for answers her, you get many - but there is no consistency…! - people use this or that amount of eggs and there is absolutely no consistency! ….but the IS consistency about one thing andthat is the complaints that the sponge cakes won’t rise…they won’t and the reason is the quality of the ingredients…
I believe the problem may also be the eggs - I am basically ok with american eggs, but….when i visited Öland in Sweden 2001, my family had eggs of course and….the quality was so astounding I cannot describe it - they were the best eggs I can remember ever having tasted…so…there are differences…
You need to use baking powder…maybe American baking powder is just crap…? ….I’d like to ask Jaques(?) Pepin how he manages to make a sponge cake in the US….and no, I don’t want to make an “angel cake”…. if you know something I don’t and wanna e-mail me - I’m on beepbeep@beep.beep
….in the meantime, I’ll keep on searching….(to use 6 or 8 eggs is just ridiculous…!! - you should be able to make a sponge cake with 2 to 4 eggs….)

by: itkitchen

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:48:55 +0000

I think the pan is 9 x 3 inch.

I stop the electric mixer to check. Checking takes only a few seconds so it won’t affect the cake.

If the beater is lifted, the batter should drip from the mixer so that a trail is seen on the mixture. That usually takes at least 5 minutes of good beating. If no trail is seen that means you need to continue beating until batter is thick enough to leave a trail.

Hard cake means not enough air bubbles in the cake. Perhaps you fold in the butter in the wrong way such that it deflate the cake. Many things can go wrong when making cake so I really cannot pin point what went wrong unless I see how the cake is done.

Overbeating occurs easily with egg white and very rarely with egg yolk. Primarily, the usual concern is about overbeating when handling egg white. With whole eggs and egg yolk, there is no need to worry too much about overbeating it as long as it is done in moderation.

Underbeating usually gives a watery, only foamy, not stiff enough batter.

Hope this helps.

by: Hangkim Long

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:58:15 +0000

Hi
The pan you used for the sponge cake is 9X2″ or 9X3″?, How do you check for the egg beaten mixture. Do you turn off the electric mixer if you turn off the mixer, will it affec the egg mixture. I either underbeat or overbeat the egg mixture; therefore, the cake does not rise. The cake is hard compact and sometimes run over pan!!! I have tried to look for a trail on the surface as you described when the beater is lifted but I don’t see it.

by: lynne

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:05:44 +0000

Hello,
Instead of vanilla, is it possible to make it plain? would it taste ok? I dont like vanilla, chocolate, etc. I like it to taste more of eggs then any of flavors.

by: maire

Sat, 12 May 2007 00:22:05 +0000

If you’re in a hurry and want a no fuss sponge premix, try Bake king’s Optima flour. Just beat it in an electric mixer with 10 eggs, 140g water and 100g of butter plus any flavourings you like - lemon, strawberry and of course vanilla are options. My mom had been using it since it first came out and it’s never disappointed us. The 1 kg pack makes 2 9in cakes.

by: ace083

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 10:55:22 +0000

try these recipes… they r easy and turn out great!

http://sweet-delicacy.blogspot.com/

by: itkitchen

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 03:20:23 +0000

Prima is a premix for sponge cake so you have to follow the instruction on the pack.

Normally if the cake doesn’t rise means the cake don’t have enough air bubbles which means you didn’t beat the batter enough.

The type of mixer is very important. With a basic mixer, the cakes produced is usually not as fluffly as those done using a good mixer.

The recommended mixers are Kenwood which costs around $1000 and Kitchen aids abt $600. I use basic mixer which costs me only $69 but my cake still rise but not as fluffy as those done with better mixers.

This is especially so when you premix flour like Prima, that’s why I do my sponge cake from scratch as in the above sponge cake recipe which is fluffier.

by: Mun Yee

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:05:15 +0000

How did you use the Prima Sponge Cake mix? Had tried but no success with it. The cake would not rise.