Vanilla Sponge Cake

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!

The easiest yummiest cake recipe ever!

I have to thank my mommy-in-law for this one!

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What you will need:

Cake

1 x box/packet vanilla cake mix (I use Moirs)

1 x instant vanilla pudding (again Moirs but any brand will do)

4 x large eggs

3/4 cup water

3/4 cup oil

1 x mixing bowl

1 x Pirex or glass dish (oblong bakes more evenly than round)

Icing

1 x cup sifted icing sugar

4 tablespoons lemon juice

1 measuring jug

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How to make the cake:

Heat the oven to 180C

Pour dry cake mix and dry pudding into the mixing bowl, add the 4 eggs, add the water and oil.

Mix until smooth and there are no lumps.

Oil/butter/Spray&Cook your glass dish.

Pour batter into dish and bake at 180C for about half an hour.

Cake should be brown and springy to the touch.

While the cake is baking, sift the icing sugar into the measuring cup and add about 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and mix.

The mixture shouldn’t be too runny.

As soon as you take the cake out the oven pour the icing over the cake and spread it around so that it covers the whole cake.

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The cake can be eaten hot with custard or ice cream or if you prefer a cool cake, I suggest you make the cake a day before and let the icing sink into the flesh of the cake, this makes it sticky and gooey all the way through.

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An alternative to vanilla and lemon is chocolate and orange.  Substitute chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding for the vanilla and use orange juice instead of lemon (be sure to strain the orange juice so it is clear and free of any pulp).