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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
Hi, Natasha
This sponge cake can I use tres leches cake right ?
Hi Fanny, one of our readers shared this “I made this exact recipe as the base of a tres leches cake a few weeks ago and used a 13” round cake pan. It came out perfect!” I hope that helps.
Hi Natasha,
If I added 1/2 cup honey to the recipe do you think it would still turn out? I want to make this particular sponge cake but add the honey flavor. Let me know your thoughts!
Hi Lilia, I honestly haven’t tried or heard of anyone trying with honey. I don’t know if it would whip up with the eggs properly. You might need to do a little google research before attempting so you don’t end up wasting ingredients.
Hi Natasha! I was wondering if this recipe could be made eggless as a lot of my family members are strictly vegetarian. Please do let me know as I am very excited to bake this cake for a birthday. Also, I baked the banana bread that you have and it was DELICIOUS! Everyone loved it!
Hi Simaran, I don’t currently have an eggless sponge cake. I do have an eggless Chocolate Cake recipe however!
Lovely fluffy cake. I made some lemon curd for filling and Italian meringue buttercream for frosting and it was a hit. I’m 54 but new to baking and I really appreciate the in depth directions. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Michelle!
Hi Natasha.
This is a great recipe! Could I use one 9 inch spring form pan instead? Will the batter fit and how long should I bake it for? Thank you!
Hi John, I have not tried this in a 9-inch spring form pan to advise on the outcome. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
I did try with a 9-inch spring form pan. I added extra 8 minutes. It turned out perfectly. Thanks for the recipe, Natasha!
You’re welcome, great to hear that it was a success!
Hi Natasha, I have used this cake base over 200 times and its perfect. However, last night I added the sugar too late (after 6-7 mins of whisking the eggs), I did not get the right consistency and the batter was very runny. I still baked the sponges but cannot use them for a layered cake as its not fluffy enough. Is there any other use of those sponges which are not so perfect?
Hi Kruti! I’m sorry to hear about the mistake with the batter. I assume there are several ways to use left over sponge, but besides cake, I have not used them for anything else. You may try researching ideas online. Let us know if you find any fun ones! 🙂
You can cut up cake and use in a layered parfait. Or individual parfait cup. Layer with whipped cream, berries, and ganache. Or whipped cream and lemon curd, etc…
Hi Natasha. Tried this recipe and all was going well till halfway through the baking process, when my nicely risen cake suddenly started deflating and flattening. I hadn’t stopped the oven or opened it or anything of the sort. It just started deflating on its own. What could have caused this?
Hi! Did you increase the recipe or use a different pan size? Common reasons are over-mixing the batter causing it to deflate, a drop in temperature, not using the correct pan size for the amount of batter. Also, if you do not already, I highly recommend using an internal oven thermometer and allowing your oven to fully preheat before baking. I hope that helps.
My grandmother made a sponge cake and put a cream mixture between the layers and iced it with whipped cream for our birthdays. The last time I had this cake was in 1971.
Unfortunately I can’t find her cake recipe but found her cream recipe. Do you this your recipe would work for this. I want to make this for my sister’s 70th birthday. Also do you cool in pain before removing it. Thanks.
Hi Sandy! I think it could work for the recipe. Let us know how it turns out if you try.
I remove the cake from the pan soon after it’s baked and let it cool at room temperature.
Delicious. Will make again with fruits and flavorings.
Hubby ate this in place of dinner.
I’m so happy you all enjoyed that!
It’s an amazing cake!
Can I also make this with trivia/erithrytol for my diabetic father?
Thanks
Thank you, Mariam. I have not tried this with those substitutions. If you do an experiment, we’d love to know how it goes.
If making this in rectangle pan, how big the pan should be? Considering sponge will be thinner and cut differently in half. And cooking time probabluly different.
Hi! I have not tested this in different sizes of pans to advise on adjustments. You may need to experiment with it. Here is a cake pan conversion chart that may be helpful.
This cake turned out beautifully.
Going to be a favorite at my home.
Aww, that’s so great, April! I’m happy you found a new favorite recipe on my blog! Thank you so much for sharing that great review with me!
Hi
Was that a dry cup or liquid cup of sugar in the video? Doesnt a liquid cup hold more ?
Hi Jaren, the measurement “1 cup” is known to be 8oz regardless of the cup used. For accuracy, it’s best to measure liquids in a liquid measuring cup and dry ingredients in a dry measuring cup. If it’s easier, you can measure dry ingredients by weight, it would be 210 grams. You may also find my tutorial here on how to measure ingredients helpful.
BEWARE! If you print the recipe and try to halve the recipe, it will only halve the Volumes, not the weights! So if you bake exclusively by volumes, it will not come out right.
I am sure the recipe is wonderful, just a shame about the printing feature.
Hi John, that is correct and unfortunately there isn’t a way currently to change any details in the instructions and only the recipe ingredient list.
Does halving the ingredients and only using 1 cake tin work out fine?? Thanks.
Hi Sian, yes, you can halve the recipe and try baking in one 9″ pan. I always caution against adjustments with baking since it’s such a science, so it’s tough to say if it will work out perfectly, but you can halve this recipe, several of our readers have done so successfully.
Hi I love your recipes when ever I make mango cake always it turned out super success. I cant eat eggs. What are the substitute options for eggs.
Thank you
Hi! I’m glad to hear that. Unfortunately, for the sponge cake recipe, the eggs are crucial and cannot be substituted. You may enjoy this eggless chocolate cake instead.
Hi Natasha,
Made this cake tons of times and it turns out perfect every time. This time I want to add gel coloring to each layer for a rainbow layer cake. Do you think it will work when I add colors after I separate the batter into each pan or it would deflate the batter?Thanks in advance!
Hi Mikki! I worry that it could possibly become over-mixed and deflated since it will take quite a few good stirs to incorporate the color well. You may try decreasing the recipe and making smaller batches of batter and mixing the color in earlier on. Let us know how it turns out!
Thank you Natasha! I will try it and let you know.
Have a wonderful day!
Since gel coloring is thick, could you ad the coloring to the whites before whipping if you want to make it all one color?
I haven’t tried it that way, Denise; I try to add it once it foams up a bit to get a better idea of how much I will need and adjust in real-time to the color I want. If you try it that way, let me know how it goes!
Hey good afternoon
Could liquid be added to the batter before baking
Like coconut milk to make a coconut sponge cake
Hi Tiffany! I would imagine you could use an extract of your choice (such as coconut) to flavor the batter without affecting the texture. But I would not add any additional liquid.
Hi Natasha I tried your recipe but the sponge was dry. Why do you think ?!
Hi Jenn, it’s hard to say without being there. You can add syrup to the cake – many recipes using this base call for syrup to moisten it. I also recommend ensuring to measure by fluffing the flour first with a spoon then spooning it into a dry ingredient measuring cup and scraping off the top. If you push your measuring cup into a flour bin, you will get up to 25% too much flour. Also, do not tap the flour down in the measuring cup.
Hi Natasha I struggle to get a great sponge cake recipe. I tried your vanilla sponge cake recipe in a small baking pan like 8 inch or 6 inch and it baked perfectly also tasted delicious buttttt I started making it in a big baking pan like 10 inch or so and it is not coming out right it’s failure, the bottom of the cake remains like raw, not bake well, it swells good when baking but when it’s out of the oven it gets flat like and raw on the bottom part of the cake,can you suggest what I perhaps did wrong? I followed the steps collect , not sure if it’s the butter but because I let the butter be soft and I use normal milk. Don’t have buttermilk and stuff.
Hi Karen, are you referring to a different recipe since this cake does not have butter or milk in it?
Hi yes I am referring to the vanilla cake recipe. You know like the vanilla cupcakes you did, there is a recipe for vanilla cake, that’s the one I use.
Whoa! I was a bit daunted by making sponge cake for some reason. This recipe was so easy and turned out perfectly! Thank you!
So glad to hear that, Kerry! Thank you for sharing.