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I love this sponge cake recipe. It’s easy and you can make hundreds of different cakes with this base. This is a classic European sponge cake (aka Genoise). Once you have this recipe down (you’ll memorize it after a couple rounds), you’ll be baking things that look and taste like they are from a fancy bakery.
This cake base takes on moisture really well from fruit, frostings, liqueurs and syrups. As you can tell from my cake recipes, I’m a sucker for moist cakes. Read on to see 11 marvelous recipes you can make using this sponge cake base.
Over the years, I’ve tested countless different ways to make this cake and this is the best, most fail-proof method for genoise that I’ve tested. This is not like American cakes and readers often question if it can really be that easy and only have 4 ingredients.
I want you to discover this gem of a cake and succeed EVERY TIME you make it. I hope you find this video helpful. We had you in mind! 🙂
Watch How To Make Sponge Cake:
Tips for Success (Read First!):
1. When no streaks of flour remain in the dough, fold a few extra times to ensure you aren’t missing pockets of flour at the bottom
2. Bake the cake layers right after folding in the flour – they should not sit too long
3. Always use a conventional oven setting (not a convection/fan setting)
4. An electric hand mixer will take 2-4 minutes longer to beat the eggs
5. Tip from reader, Hilda: “How do you know u get the right consistency? Lift up your beater (whisk) from the batter. Make a figure “8” using the batter that drip off the beater. Then count to 10 seconds. If the figure 8 still remains on top of the batter, then u have the right consistency. If the figure 8 sinks into the batter before 10 secs, then u need to beat it longer.”
6. Bake in the center of the oven
7. Place cake in a fully pre-heated oven
8. Do not open the oven door to check on the cake until towards the end
9. Let the cake cool in a room without any outdoor draft which can make it seem eggy
Sponge Cake Recipes you can master at home:
Blackberry Lemon Cake – soft and moist and has a fluffy lemon blackberry buttercream frosting.
Charlotte Cake – layers of raspberry mousse, lady fingers and fluffy cake.
Poppy Seed Cake – fluffy and moist with a hint of rum and it’s not overly sweet.
Strawberry Sponge Cake – boasts 1 1/2 lbs of fresh strawberries. You’ll love the simple and delicious whipped cream cheese frosting.
Black Forest Cake – A chocolate version of classic genoise with 1 lb of kirsch infused cherries and whipped cream. So good!!
Russian Apple Cake (Sharlotka) – Just 5 ingredients and 15 min of prep, then your oven does the rest!
Poppy Seed Cake Roll – Moist, generously filled with a cream cheese frosting, covered with velvety chocolate ganache and pummeled with salted pistachios.
Pomegranate Christmas Cake – With a crown of glistening pom seeds, this one’s a stunner for the holidays.
Story Book Cake Roll – This cake roll is moist, rolled with a vanilla butter cream, covered in decadent chocolate and the cookie crumbs give it a subtle crunch.
Kiwi Berry Cake – If you love fruit, this cake will make your dreams come true. Layer after layer of gorgeous berries.
Tiramisu – if you like tiramisu, you will love this!
I told you I loved this cake base. I’m Completely smitten 🙂
4-Ingredient Sponge Cake (Video Recipe)
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar, 210 grams
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, 130 grams
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
Instructions
Prep:
- Preheat Oven to 350˚F. Line bottoms of two 9″ cake pans with parchment paper (do not grease the sides).
How to Make this Sponge Cake:
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment (this is the one I have), beat 6 large eggs for 1 minute on high speed. With the mixer on, gradually add 1 cup sugar and continue beating 8-10 minutes until thick and fluffy.
- Whisk together 1 cup flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder then sift this mixture into fluffy egg mixture one third at a time. Fold with a spatula with each addition just until incorporated. Scrape spatula from the bottom to catch any pockets of flour and stop mixing when no streaks of flour remain. Do not over-mix or you will deflate the batter.
- Divide evenly between prepared cake pans (it helps if you have a kitchen scale to weight the pans). Bake at 350˚F for 23-28 minutes (my oven took 25 min), or until top is golden brown. Remove from pan by sliding a thin spatula (here’s the one I love for cakes) around the edges then transfer to a wire rack and remove parchment backing. Cool cakes to room temperature then slice layers equally in half with a serrated knife.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
mine collapsed in the centre after rising to the brim of the pan (at around 25 minutes). batter consistency was definitely correct because the cakes (from the same leftover batter) turned out perfect in the cup cake liners, but sank in the large cake tin. please advise where i have gone wrong, thanks
Hi Kim, I’m happy to trouble shoot. It’s best not to open the oven on this cake – the heat escaping quickly can cause the cake to sink in the center. Also, try mixing another couple of minutes – if you are using a hand mixer or anything other than the highest speed, the cake won’t rise properly since it relies on the volume of eggs and sugar to rise. I hope that helps!
May I know we should follow cup measurement or gram?
1 cup granulated sugar 210 grams
1 cup all-purpose flour 130 grams
Hi Simy, we follow the cups but you are more than welcome to use the grams measurement.
How many days in advance can you bake this sponge cake before assembling? And how/where do you store it in the meantime?
Hi Marianne, Yes, you can make the cake base ahead of time and store it either in the fridge or at room temperature for a day or 2 or wrap and freeze up to 3 months.
I am so glad I stumbled onto your website. I have an over abundance of strawberries and wanted a quick and easy (and of course delicious) sponge cake instead of the typical bread most people used. I’m thrilled to say your recipe is exactly what I had in mind, easy and very good. I followed the recipe to the “T” it did fall a little in the middle but I have to take responsibility for that since I failed to take notice that when using an electric mixer extra beating is required. Anyway you have a new follower, I will be trying more of your recipes.
I’m so glad you discovered our blog and gave this recipe a go, Janet! Thank you for sharing that feedback with us!
Hi Ms. Natasha,
I would like to ask what is the difference if I use convection oven? I only have convection oven at home.
Hi Mae, I haven’t tested this in a convection oven so I’m not sure what to recommend. I have had at least 1 reader that I can recall say they did not have good results in a convection oven.
OMG thank you so much for such an easy and delicious recipe. I had a couple of hiccups: forgot to add sugar so beated a bit longer, folded flour a bit too much so it lost a bit of the volume oh, and oven was 180 Celsius insted of 175 so cake was ready in 19min. BUT for my surprise it still came out amazing!! Can’t fail this recipe A tip for those who are not getting it right is to check your tools, oven settings, folding technique or anything elsr that could be interfering on your result as the recipe is perfect!!! Thank you Natasha!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe Mila, hiccups and all.
Hi Natasha,can I bake this cake in single 9 inch with 3″tall spring foam pan..if so wat would be the baking time? I don’t want to open the oven often to check it’s doneness as u have mentioned not to open the oven once the cake is inside…
Hi Dammy, did you bake the entire cake batch in the one pan? In that case, it should be baked for 30 minutes. I have done this successfully with my tiramisu cake. I hope that helps!
Hi Natasha,thank you so much for this awesome receipe…it was a super hit.
I’ so glad you enjoyed that Dammy! Thank you for the great feedback!
Hi Natasha, how much cocoa would you add to this cake to make it a chocolate cake, and when would you add it? Would it reduce the flour amount?
Hi Keith, for a chocolate sponge cake, you basically substitute some of the flour with cocoa. So you could try 1/4 cup sifted cocoa and 3/4 cup flour and sift them together before folding them into the batter.
I would like to use this recipe to make 10″, 8″ & 6″ cakes. Any idea how much batter I would need? Also, please share how you calculated the amount.
Thanks.
Hi Christy, I always make mine at 9″ and I would have to experiment to give you exact amounts. If anyone else has already experimented, please let us know.
Hi Natasha, I have a question. Can you use a blender instead of a electric beater?
Hi Nathan, I honestly haven’t tried using a high powered blender for this so I can’t say for sure. I suspect it wouldn’t whip the batter properly as a whisk attachment would. This cake relies on the volume of the eggs and sugar to rise so I probably wouldn’t risk it.
Mine collapsed and it tasted like flour inspite of following the recipe to the T🤦🏼♀️
Hi Liz, I’m sorry to hear that! I have literally made this a hundred times and I am always happy to help troubleshoot. Did you watch the video tutorial? At what point in the process did your results look different from mine? The most likely culprit is under beating the eggs and sugar or not using a high speed mixer. If you haven’t already, make sure to read through the troubleshooting tips in this post as well which should help.
Help….mine collapsed in the center. Not sure what I did wrong.
Hi Sandy, I’m happy to trouble shoot. It’s best not to open the oven on this cake – the heat escaping quickly can cause the cake to sink in the center. Also, try mixing another couple of minutes – if you are using a hand mixer or anything other than the highest speed, the cake won’t rise properly since it relies on the volume of eggs and sugar to rise. I hope that helps!
I very rarely leave reviews, but this recipe merits one. I got a new oven recently so I thought I’d try out sponge cake for the first time—I love sponge cake but my previous oven was too finicky too attempt it.
This recipe was so simple to follow and I had my cakes done in no time. I filled mine with whipped cream mixed with lemon curd and it was delicious (quickly devoured by my work colleagues). My only very, very slight criticism was that the cake was a bit more ‘rubbery’ than I was expecting (though not so much as to be off-putting at all), probably because I’m more used to the light and crumbly Victoria sponge. On the plus side, it makes it ideal for creating thin layers 🙂 I can’t wait to try out the other recipes based on this one!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! That lemon curd, whipped cream combo sounds delicious! Thank you for the wonderful review!
Hi Natasha
So inspo to read how much I can do with this recipe!
I am a mother of the bride on a strict budget who’s cake maker has fallen through 8 weeks from the wedding. Eeeek!
Instead of panicking, my daughter and I have decided to make floral gourmet pavlovas for the wedding cake.
The recipe for pavs recommends a thin layer of genoise sponge between pav and cream layer to keep the pav crispy. What do think? Should I make the sponge thin? Or should I carve off thin slices after cooking?
I thought the latter might be crumbly and weird.
Help please ?!
Hi Deborah, pavlovas should not have cream added until just before serving. It might be risky to make a cake out of them for that reason – they will soften and become gooey.
Can I make tres leches from this recipe?
Hi, I haven’t tried, but I think it could work since it is a sponge. I would highly recommend either of our tres leches cakes.
Hi Natasha just wondering if I can add some vanilla extract to the mix ?
Hi Alexa, you can add 1 tsp of vanilla extract (or any), folding it in quickly before adding flour.
Delicious very quick and easy to make. I made a half recipe and topped with strawberry compote, chantilly, and raspberries.
Thanks for the recipe!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Riley!
Can i add cacao powder to get a chocolate genoise cake??
Hi Hoda, for a chocolate sponge cake, you basically substitute some of the flour with cocoa. So you could try 1/4 cup sifted cocoa and 3/4 cup flour and sift them together before folding them into the batter.
you are my new “go to” for everything. You are great!
Aww that’s the best! Thank you for sharing that with me!
would this work to make an upside down pineaple cake?
Hi Eunice, I haven’t tested that but here is what one of our readers wrote: “I used your 4 ingredient sponge cake recipe to make an upside down pineapple cake and I loved it!” I hope that helps!
Thanks! Im making it today with italian meringue (thats the frosting we love in my country, not fans of buttercream) and fill it with pastry cream… I will let you know how the cake turns out… looove your blog, greetings from the Dominican Republic
Hi Natasha! Just wanted to ask a question. If we don’t have an electric whisker, can we beat it by hand?
Hi Niharika, unfortunately, this cake will take forever and won’t beat adequately with a hand whisk.
HI Natasha would I be able to use SR flour with this cake?
Hi Genady, I honestly haven’t tried this cake with self rising flour so I can’t say for sure how it would affect the rise. I searched all 824 comments and couldn’t find any reports of using self rising flour. If you experiment, please let me know how it goes.
If I only have one cake pan should I split the recipe in half and only mix and bake one at a time since I’m the recipe it says not to let the batter sit after being mixed? Also if I’m only baking one at a time would I have to raise the pre heating temp
Hi Janessa, that is what I would do – make and bake half of the recipe at a time.
I’ve made this recipe several times before and absolutely loved it. Was hoping to make it today with a rectangular pan rather than circular. Any advice on what size pan to use or how to adjust cooking time?
Hi Joanna, I have doubled this recipe for a 9×13″ cake pan before. Without doubling it may be a fairly skinny cake depending on your pan size. Here is an example of the doubled recipe we made for a 9×13 strawberry cake (note it was before we started adding baking powder). Anyways, also note that each batch of batter needs to be beaten separately unless you have an industrial electric mixer, otherwise it will overwhelm the mixer and not whip sufficiently for the cake to rise properly.
What is the baking time for an 18 * 12 inch pan ? Appreciate your reply
Hi Vineela, I haven’t tested that with an 18×12 but I have doubled this recipe for a 9×13″ cake pan before. Without doubling it may be a fairly skinny cake depending on your pan size. Here is an example of the doubled recipe we made for a 9×13 strawberry cake (note it was before we started adding baking powder). Anyways, also note that each batch of batter needs to be beaten separately unless you have an industrial electric mixer, otherwise it will overwhelm the mixer and not whip sufficiently for the cake to rise properly.