Cora’s Sponge Cake

Growing up in Dublin, Ireland my Mum, Cora made sponge cakes frequently during the summer when strawberries were in season. Usually she made her traditional version using two sandwich tins in later years she would bake the sponge in one tin and then slice it into at least three layers and fill with cream and strawberries. Thanks to Dawn from Petals. Paper. Simple Thymes for her comment on this recipe as she reminded me that I should also mention that cakes such as Victoria Sponge made with butter or without butter as discussed here are often served in Ireland and Britain as part of an  Afternoon Tea.

     

 Last weekend I made my Mum’s sponge recipe using a Flan Tin, mine has fluted sides and a slightly raised centre so when the sponge is turned out there is a hollow in the middle which you can then fill with  whipped cream and top with fruit. I bought the Flan tin in Ireland when home on holidays as I hadn’t seen any in New York or online based on my quick search. My Flan tin is quite large 28cm/11″ so I used the ingredients below, however if you have smaller tins such as 8″ you could use 5 large eggs, 5oz sugar, 5oz plain flour.

Ingredients 

6 large eggs

150g (6oz) of caster sugar or white sugar

150g (6oz) of plain flour or all purpose flour {My Auntie Mary likes to add a generous pinch of baking powder to the flour}

Method

Beat the six eggs together in a clean bowl until thick and creamy, I find it easier to use my hand held mixer for this task as I have more control. Then add the sugar and beat until the mixture is thick enough to create the number 8 using the beaters, hope the picture below helps explain that.

Finally fold in the sieved flour and mix until all the ingredients are well combined.

Then pour the mixture/batter into the well greased flan tin. I cut out a circle from the parchment paper to cover the centre of the Flan tin so that removal of the sponge would be easier. If using two sandwich tins or one baking tin grease and line with parchment paper.

    

Oven Temperature and Baking Times:

My Mum likes to bake her sponge at Gas 5, 375F, 180C  which would be too hot in our oven so last week I baked mine at 325F for approx 30 mins until golden photograph below left. I made another flan this week using 5 eggs {definitely 6 is better for that size tin} and I baked it at 355F which took approximately 20 mins, next time I will try 350F and see how it is as even though I was pleased with the results I do think a slightly cooler  oven might be even better photo below right. I have mentioned in earlier posts that I have to use the Speedbake button on our Frigidaire Gas Oven as otherwise cakes do not turn a nice golden colour. If you are baking the sponge in one tin it will take slightly longer to do as the mixture is thicker. To check to see if the sponge is done insert a toothpick into the centre and if it comes out clean you know it’s ready.

    

When the sponge has cooled down remove from tin and leave resting on a wire rack. To finish spread with whipped heavy cream and top with the strawberries.

Update on Flan Tins so when I searched for pan instead of tin I found several on line such as this one at Amazon and it had received favourable reviews.

25 Jun This entry was published on June 25, 2015 at 5:59 pm. It’s filed under #cora's sponge cake and tagged #baking. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.