Sponge cake - step by step tutorial

step 1
Line the bottom of an 8" cake tin (preferably aluminium tin) with butter paper. There is no need to grease the tin.

Sift the flour thrice and keep aside. This adds air to the flour and removes any impurities present.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

step 2
Crack the eggs into a large, clean and dry bowl and add granulated sugar to it.
Beat the eggs and sugar with an electric whisk at high speed till the till creamy and white. This step incorporates air into the cake batter, and will determine how light and spongy your cake is. Lift the beater and allow some mixture to fall into the bowl. If a ribbon formed on the surface retains it's form for atleast 10 seconds, then you have beaten enough. With my hand held electric whisk (which feels quite heavy after a few minutes), it took me (or rather my dad who was assisting me) around 12-15 minutes to reach here.

step 3
Add the essence and continue whisking at high speed for a couple of minutes more till the essence is distributed evenly throughout the batter.

step 4
Add half the flour to the batter along the edges. Fold in the flour by moving your spatula along the edges of the bowl. This needs to be done quickly and carefully so as to retain the air bubbles you have painstakingly beaten into the eggs.

step 5
When the flour appears to be incorporated, cut your spatula through the middle of the batter, and sweep it up the side of the bowl. This brings up any flour that hasn't been mixed into the batter as yet. Continue folding in the batter, till cutting through it doesn't turn up any more unincorporated flour.

step 6
Add oil and the remaining flour to the batter, and again cut and fold it in as before.

Pour the batter into the cake tin. Knock down the cake tin a couple of times onto your kitchen counter to remove any large air bubbles present and to break the small air bubbles on top of the batter.

step 7
Pop the tin into the preheated oven and bake for about 25 minutes or till the cake is done. You know it is nearing doneness when you get the wonderful aroma of freshly baked cake. To make sure, stick a toothpick into the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean without any wetness or crumbs sticking to it, the cake is done. Or else touch the surface of the cake lightly. You know the cake is done if it springs back immediately.

Invert the cake tin onto a metal rack (do not try removing the cake from the tin now) and leave it to cool completely, preferably overnight.

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