Sponge Cake

A birthday cake for my daddy-o. Sweet, soft and tender... and the cake's pretty awesome too.


Sponge Cake
from Paul Allam and David McGuinness's Bourke Street Bakery

7 eggs, at room temperature
175g caster sugar
60g unsalted butter, melted
170g plain flour, sifted 3 times
200ml cream, whipped
200g raspberry jam (I pushed mine through a fine sieve to get rid of the seeds)
Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Grease two 20cm round cake pans and line the base and sides with baking paper. Make sure paper comes up above the top of the tins by about 2.5cms. This creates a "collar", protecting the top of the cake from getting too much direct heat.

Put the eggs into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Add the sugar and mix on high speed for 5 minutes, or until nearly tripled in volume.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and using a large metal spoon, fold through about half of the sifted flour in a few quick strokes. Add the rest of the flour and fold through quickly, trying not to knock too much air out of it. You've worked hard to incorporate lots of air, you don't what to lose it buy mixing too much. Gently fold through the melted butter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cake springs back when gently pressed with a finger and the cakes slightly pull away from the sides of the pans. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cooled, place one of the cakes onto a cake plate, platter or stand and spread the cream over it and top with jam, then place the other cake on top, creating a sandwich. Dust the top with icing sugar.