I have never ever made a proper ‘from scratch’ sponge cake but I decided that for mothers day that is what I would be making.
I scoured the web and found this recipe from the Clover site.
I adapted it ever so slightly.
Ingredients
4 eggs
300ml (250g) castor sugar
500ml (280g) cake flour
15ml baking powder
250ml milk
100g margerine
5ml vanilla essence
Note: I measured everything out precisely using my kitchen scale, something I have never really done before. It must have worked because the cake was delicious!
Method
Preheat your oven to 180°C.
Beat eggs and caster sugar together (I used a hand held electric beater for about 3 minutes).
Sift flour and baking powder and fold into egg mixture.
On the stove, melt the marge in the milk on a medium heat, do not let the mixture boil.
Add the vanilla essence to the flour and egg mixture and mix well.
Pour the mixture into a pre-greased springform tin and bake for 30 minutes.
This was the only photo I had, it was gone before I could get a photo of the whole cake!
I covered my cake in a Pick n Pay Finest chocolate ganache. Let me stop here and just say O.M.G! You have to get your hands on this stuff, its divine!
Aaron has been asking to make a cake the whole week so I looked into the cupboard and found that I didnt have my trusty Moirscake mix, I did have flour, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and milk so I figured I would try making a cake from scratch. Aaron wanted a chocolate cake so I found some cocoa powder too.
I found a recipe for a chocolate butter sponge in an old International Goodwill Cookbook (7th edition). I made a few small adjustments but it turned out really well.
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup castor sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla ( I just poured in a splash)
1 ¼ cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt (I threw in a ‘pinch’)
2 teaspoons baking powder (I use 3 teaspoons but I know in my kitchen I have to increase baking powder)
1 heaped tablespoon cocoa
½ cup milk
45g butter
Method:
Beat eggs, add sugar gradually, add vanilla and beat with a hand held beater for 3 minutes.
Sift dry ingredients 4 times (at this point I have to ask whose socks the creator of this recipe was smoking, I sifted the flour once, straight into the wet ingredients, that was it!), and stir into egg mixture, blending thoroughly.
Bring milk and butter to the boil and add to mixture.
Mix well with an electric beater.
Pour into 1 large or two small tins and bake at 180°C for 40min (large tin) or 25min (small tins).
Allow to cool before icing.
For the icing I decided to make a ganache. Mainly because I had some bitter sweet chocolate from Pesach and I wanted a really chocolaty icing. Unfortunately I didnt have any cream so I used margarine (purist dont hate me, I know its not even BUTTER!!!) instead.
Ingredients:
250g bitter sweet chocolate
250g margerine
icing sugar to thicken
Method:
Break chocolate into pieces and place in a microwavable bowl.
Add margarine.
Place bowl in microwave for about 1min depending on microwave strength.
Mix the icing until the chocolate is melted into the marge. You may need to nuke it a bit longer.
Once the icing is melted add a bit of icing sugar and mix.
Keep adding icing sugar until you reach the thickness you want.
This icing will also thicken/harden as it cools, so you may want to leave it to cool down before adding any icing sugar.
Once its ready layer it onto the cake, starting in the middle and spreading it towards the sides.
It may drip over the sides or you may need to spread it depending on thickness.
Aaron has been asking to make a cake the whole week so I looked into the cupboard and found that I didnt have my trusty Moirs cake mix, I did have flour, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and milk so I figured I would try making a cake from scratch. Aaron wanted a chocolate cake so I found some cocoa powder too.
I found a recipe for a chocolate butter sponge in an old International Goodwill Cookbook (7th edition). I made a few small adjustments but it turned out really well.
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup castor sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla ( I just poured in a splash)
1 ¼ cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt (I threw in a ‘pinch’)
2 teaspoons baking powder (I use 3 teaspoons but I know in my kitchen I have to increase baking powder)
1 heaped tablespoon cocoa
½ cup milk
45g butter
Method:
Beat eggs, add sugar gradually, add vanilla and beat with a hand held beater for 3 minutes.
Sift dry ingredients 4 times (at this point I have to ask whose socks the creator of this recipe was smoking, I sifted the flour once, straight into the wet ingredients, that was it!), and stir into egg mixture, blending thoroughly.
Bring milk and butter to the boil and add to mixture.
Mix well with an electric beater.
Pour into 1 large or two small tins and bake at 180°C for 40min (large tin) or 25min (small tins).
Allow to cool before icing.
For the icing I decided to make a ganache. Mainly because I had some bitter sweet chocolate from Pesach and I wanted a really chocolaty icing. Unfortunately I didnt have any cream so I used margarine (purist dont hate me, I know its not even BUTTER!!!) instead.
Ingredients:
250g bitter sweet chocolate
250g margerine
icing sugar to thicken
Method:
Break chocolate into pieces and place in a microwavable bowl.
Add margarine.
Place bowl in microwave for about 1min depending on microwave strength.
Mix the icing until the chocolate is melted into the marge. You may need to nuke it a bit longer.
Once the icing is melted add a bit of icing sugar and mix.
Keep adding icing sugar until you reach the thickness you want.
This icing will also thicken/harden as it cools, so you may want to leave it to cool down before adding any icing sugar.
Once its ready layer it onto the cake, starting in the middle and spreading it towards the sides.
It may drip over the sides or you may need to spread it depending on thickness.
