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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
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
2nd time making this…so yummy and easy. Having with strawberries and whipping cream.
Hi Natasha, I see on the comments from your Kiev cake recipe that you now use this for the sponge cake. Since that recipe uses a singe 9×13 pan should I just continue with that? I see this recipe uses 2 less eggs as well so will it be enough for that cake or do adjustments need to be made?
Hi Alei, I would suggest following the egg quantity in the 9×13 recipe since it is a larger pan.
Natasha,
I made this because I was craving spongecake and strawberries. Looke djust like my mother’s cake. Just curious, the recipe, itself, doesn’t mention the parchment technique. Unless the baker is familiar or watches tghe video, they would have no idea. Just curious, what happens if they put it into a dry pan. My husband, who is a CIA grad and working chef thinks it would get mangled when trying to remove it from the pan. BTW, he’s makinf Beef Wellington for a family dinner!
Hi, I would definitely line the bottom with parchment. I do have that in the instructions as well. Can you share where you feel I should add that in the post as well to make it more clear? Are you looking higher up in the post? Here is the first step of the print friendly recipe card: Preheat Oven to 350˚F. Line bottoms of two 9″ cake pans with parchment paper (do not grease the sides).
Good afternoon. Have you made this with monk fruit or stevia? My husband is diabetic. I love all your cake recipes, I just need to find something we can both enjoy. Thank you so much!
Hi Raquel! I have not. I don’t have much experience with sugar free baking alternatives. I read through the comments to see if any of my viewers had any feedback on this but I did not see any comments pertaining to this. If you experiment, please let us know how it turns out.
I love your recipes and made the cake. While it is easy, it’s bland. I added 1 tsp of vanilla, but probably could use more. And theirs no salt in the recipe? Is there suppose to be? Thank you.
Hi LC! This type of sponge cake is used as a base for hundreds of European cake recipes and gets its flavor from the syrups, fruit/cream fillings, and frostings. I think that with most sponge cake recipes you’ll find that they have a very basic flavor because they don’t contain ingredients like butter, oil, milk, etc. which add flavor.
You can add more vanilla extract, lemon, or almond extract to help add flavor to this sponge cake. If you want more of a traditional vanilla cake, I would suggest my Vanilla cake recipe.
Hello Natasha,
thank you for a wonderful recipe.
I have been using your recipe for biskvit for 5 or so years now, but looks like I used the previous version I saved years ago but cannot find now. It had 5 eggs, 3/4 cups of sugar, 1 cup of flour and no baking powder.
Is the recipe on this page the updated version?
Thanks,
Natalia
HI Natalia this recipe was updated years ago to include some baking powder for more consistent results. I think the issue was that some people were underbeating the eggs and adding just a little bit of baking powder helped make the recipe more failproof.
Hi,
Thank you for the recipe and instructions. Has anyone tried baking this cake in a tube pan?
Regards,
Elena
Hi Elena! You’re very welcome. I have not tested that. I looked through the comments but did not see that somebody has tried that.
Heya, how tall are you cake pans ? also are they sandwich pans ? Thanks so much
I used 9″ cake pans, it is a standard cake pan. I have a link to the pan I use in my Amazon shop.
Thanks for the amazing reciepe natasha..I tried last week and it came very well.. do you recommend doubling or tripling recipe? I want to do that for bigger cakes
Hi Ramya! If you have a bowl large enough to properly fit and incorporate the ingredients well without over mixing the batter, you can increase the recipe. You’ll have to experiment with the pan sizes and baking time.
I’ve previously made three-ingredient Italian sponge, just the same minus the bit of baking powder and I like this one better. Thanks.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
Hi Natasha
Love this recipe!!! Have made it a few times for various cakes. This time I was wondering if I can make it a chocolate sponge cake?? I looked at the Black Forest version but did not want to use butter as thought it maybe too heavy. Please advise
Big thank you
Larissa
Great to hear that you enjoyed this recipe. I haven’t tried making that version to advise. If you do an experiment, we’d love to know how it goes!
hi! first time mking a spinge cake! i woould say i aced the sponge part but i lacked the part where my sponge cake tasted like egg amd smelled lime it. i didnt habe time to habe the egg at room temperture so would that also effect how ots made?
And i cant wait to make the strawberry cake!
thank you!
Hi Christine, I can’t wait for your to try it either! Normally this should not taste or smell eggy. The most common reason for that would be under beating the eggs and sugar. I suggest watching the video tutorial to see if your cake looked the same and if not, try to determine where it started looking different in the process. Another reason for an eggy smell would be if the cake was cooled in an area of the outdoor draft – the same thing goes for any egg-based dessert-like meringue or egg-based cakes. Also, be sure to use fresh eggs. Some people are more sensitive to eggs so you can also try to mask the egg flavor with a little vanilla or lemon extract in the cake batter next time. I hope that helps.
Hi Natasha, the video is missing. I love your easy going and fun way of teaching! Thanks!
Hi Rubes! What device are you using? I tested this on my phone and desktop and I am seeing the video attached and able to watch it. It’s linked above underneath the note: “Watch How To Make Sponge Cake.” I would try refreshing or restarting your device to see if it corrects the issue.
Hello, wondering how many servings does this yield if cut into medium size portions?
Hi Zhenya! A cake this size normally serves 8-12.
Hello Natasha,
I made this recipe with an electrical hand mixer. I mixed the eggs for 4 minutes. Added a tsp of vanilla extract. Gradually mixed in the sugar for 12 minutes. Then follow the recipe as described but my cakes didn’t come out fluffy. They was kind of dense. What did I do wrong?
An electric hand mixer will take 2-4 minutes longer to beat the eggs.
Hi,
Just took the cakes out of the oven and they smell SO strongly of egg… is this normal?
Hi Alex, Normally this should not taste or smell eggy. The most common reason for that would be under beating the eggs and sugar. I suggest watching the video tutorial to see if your cake looked the same and if not, try to determine where it started looking different in the process. Another reason for an eggy smell would be if the cake was cooled in an area of the outdoor draft – the same thing goes for any egg-based dessert-like meringue or egg-based cakes. Also, be sure to use fresh eggs. Some people are more sensitive to eggs so you can also try to mask the egg flavor with a little vanilla or lemon extract in the cake batter next time. I hope that helps.
🎈Great recipe. The cake was light, delicious, and quick and easy to prepare.
I made it with gluten free flour.
Bake it in a round pan.
I grabbed a loaf pan and it sunk a little in the middle. But it was good. Icing fixed that little mistake. 😊
Hi Irene! I’m so glad you loved the recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Natasha
I want to make a small cake. I have 6 inch pan do you think i should divide the recipe in 2?
Hi Gabrielle, I haven’t tried this recipe in that size pan, but I recommend using THIS Adapt Baking Recipes to Fit Different Pan Sizes Guide.
Hi natasha I love your recipes my birthday is coming up soon I have decided to make this cake .
Hi Vidia! Happy (early) birthday! I hope you love this sponge cake! Be sure to check out the recommended variations and flavor combinations for this cake that I included in the blog.
Hi, I didn’t have two 9” pans so I divided the batter into three 8” pans. I’m thinking they may not need to be cut in half. I wanted to know how thick were your sliced layers? Thanks!
Hi Elaine. They were about 2” thick.
Hi. I’m not sure why you saying not to use convection oven.
I ‘ ve been baking everything in convection oven for 30 years. I mean everything. Even at work in commercial convection.
It is a night and day. Things are fluffier, evenly baked and faster done.
Hi Mia! Feel free to use your convection oven if you’re used to baking with it. I don’t know what changes would need to be made to the time and temperature because this recipe was written and tested in a conventional oven using regular bake mode.
I used this recipe to make my Puerto Rican Mojadito cake and it worked beautifully! The fact that it held it’s wonderful texture after adding the almond sugar syrup really surprised me! It only lasted 2 days. The only change I made was to add a little vanilla extract. Thank you so much for this recipe
Hi Aurie! That’s great to hear. Thank you for sharing that.