Delicious Sponge Cake
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.Mix the sugar, flour (and baking powder if used) and butter together with a spoon or knife; keep working the mixture (either by hand or in a food processor) until the texture is one of crumbs about 1-3 mm across.
- Add the beaten eggs slowlybeating the mixture all the time. Asyou add the eggs so the mixture should become quite stiff and semi elastic (that is if you stretch it then let go, it should not remain as it was but should tend to retract a little.
- Once the mixture reaches this stage stop adding any more liquid and keep beat ing the mixture for a minute or so. Finally, add more liquid as needed to obtain the 'right' consistency. It is impossible to put into words just what the required consistency is for this sort of cake. Indeed, the best consistency is different for different flours and when using eggs of different ages; for example when using strong, or high protein, flours a runnier texture is required.
- If the mixture is too stiff then the cake will not rise much; on the other hand if it is too runny then although it will rise in the initial stages of cooking it will collapse before it is fully cooked.
- To try to give some idea I would note that the mixture should remain stuck to a spoon when inverted
- Once the cake mixture is just right put it into a greased and lined tin (the quantity given should be about right for a 20 cm diameter tin) and cook at 200°C for about 20 minutes.
- Test the cake with a knife to see if it is ready. If not, cook for a few minutes more and test again. When the cake is ready take it out of the oven, drop from a height of about 30 cm on to a hard surface (to prevent any collapse) and leave to cool before turning out of the tin.