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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
I’m wondering if the eggs should be at room temperature before using them.
Hi Sara, yes for best results, eggs should be at room temperature. I have that in the print-friendly recipe card towards the bottom. 🙂
Hi Natasha my concern the egge smell can we add some vanilla or lemon zest
Hi Salma, you could add 1/2 tsp or up to 1 tsp of vanilla after the flour is all blended in, just be sure not to overmix after adding vanilla .
which sugar are we suppose to use. Do we use caster sugar
Hi Rudo, you will need regular granulated sugar for this recipe. I have that in the print-friendly recipe towards the bottom. 🙂
Wow thank you so much the video and your tips really helped. However this time I would like to make a chocolate sponge cake. So the dough should be brown instead of pale. Do you have a receipe?
Hi Kiki, I have made a chocolate sponge cake before but don’t have a recipe posted yet. I’ll add it to my list 🙂
I would add in one cup of cocoa powder and remove half a cup of flour to compensate for the dryness, and maybe add a little vanilla.
Hi Jen, 1 cup of cocoa would probably be too much for this cake. In this sponge cake, I usually substitute cocoa with flour straight across – Tbsp for Tbsp.
Hi, I made a 1/2 batch today and the cake was super eggy. Any idea what went wrong?
Hi Yoona, it is typically due to underbeating the eggs and sugar. Even if you cut the recipe in half, you would still need to beat for the recommended time in the recipe since the cake relies on the volume of the eggs and sugar to rise, or it can be dense and seem “eggy”. I hope that helps for next time!
Hi Natasha I tried your Charlotte cake receipe and 4 ingredient sponge cake. Charlotte cake sponge was really good but my sponge cake slightly sank from the centre do you know what I can do to avoid this ?
Hi Ruchi, if everything was the same in the ingredients and timings in the recipe (no substitutions like raw sugar, etc), the usual culprit with this cake is underbeating the eggs and sugar. Since the cake relies on the volume of the eggs and sugar to rise properly, if they don’t whip adequately, it won’t rise as well. Also, if you are using a hand-held mixer, add a few minutes to the mixing time since a hand mixer is not as effective at whipping as a stand mixer with whisk attachment. I hope that helps for next time 🙂
Hi there, so I accidentally messed up my first batch by not making sure the sugar was fully dissolved before adding the flour.
is there any way I can still use this batter for some other kind of cake so I’m not wasting it?
Hi Autumn, unfortunately I don’t have any other recipes that are like it. Most of my cake recipes outside of my sponge cakes call for wet ingredients to be mixed separately from dry and then combined and often the order of adding ingredients will affect the outcome. I also don’t have any cakes that I can think of that call for this many eggs outside of sponge cake.
The worst that will happen is that the sugar may collect a little bit at the bottom of the cake. Probably not a major disaster, since most of it was dissolved. However, if the sugar wasn’t fully mixed in, that’s a good sign you didn’t beat the egga long enough lol.
Hi Natasha,
I tried this recipe and it came out great! I used the cakes for a lychee cake and everyone loved it!
I’d like to make a larger cake-13×9″ do I just double this recipe?
Hi Anna, 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.
Hi Natasha
Thank you. However, I am not seeing the link you posted. Do you mind posting again please, thank you.
Hi Anna, so sorry about that! I must have clicked to reply too quickly. Here is the link to the 9×13 strawberry cake.
Thank you so much! 🙂
I should think this recipe could be made in the two 9″ cake pans, or a 9″X13″ pan, the same as a cake mix works. It’s around the same volume of cake batter.
Just made this and it turned out pretty well. I think it fell a bit from the kids opening the oven.
I’m glad to hear the recipe was a success Tina! Thanks for sharing!
Really a huge variety of cake. Thanks for sharing such an awesome post . It really useful to me.
You’re welcome Ravi! I’m glad you find it helpful!
Why don’t you use Butter? Isn’t that necessary?
Hi Kishore, butter is not traditionally used in this classic European sponge cake. I have used it in my Black Forest chocolate cake batter but it does make the batter a little trickier to work with and can deflate easier if the butter is not the correct temperature and if is not baked immediately after adding the butter.
Will it only work with white sugar? It won’t work with cane sugar or any other?
Hi Ana, I always use granulated sugar but it is so similar to cane sugar that I think it would work to substitute. Cane sugar can make some baked goods a little darker in color so that’s something to keep in mind 🙂
I’m planning to make a Boston Cream Pie with this recipe. How long will it keep (storing with Saran Wrap) prior to serving? Thank you!
Hi Deb, you can keep it at room temperature overnight, several days in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer.
Hi Natasha, thanks i made sponge cake it came out really fluffy. But i have few querries.
I found it little sweeter as per my taste…can a cut down little on sugar?
I want to add some flavour like vanilla,can i add it while beating eggs?
It was so soft that cutting layers was crumbling my cake …what should i do?
Last but not least my edges and top were little over done in fan mode. Should i check it after 15 minutes , will it not harm opening oven little earlier
Hi, I recommend baking this cake on regular conventional bake mode (not convection) which will help with the baking issues. You can fold in some vanilla after adding flour (I would do 1/2 to 1 tsp vanilla)
Hello Natasha, I’m a vegetarian and really excited to try this recipe out. Can you suggest any substitute?
Hi Jayashri, unfortunately there is no adequate substitute for the egg since that is the bulk of the cake and it relies on the eggs to rise.
Wow, thanks to you, I actually did this! I did follow your directions exactly and both pans turned out perfectly! This is a keeper with so many ideas on how to use this cake. Thank you so much for posting such a simple and easy recipe with video. Happy Holidays!
You’re welcome! I’m glad to hear how much you enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing! Merry Christmas 🙂
Thanks for the recipe Natasha. Looks super easy. i wish to make lemon sponge cake. Will adding lemon juice (acidic) impact the cake? what do you suggest?
Secondly how can i make a chocolate version of the same? Can you share proportion of cocoa powder in this case?
Hi Neha, 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 haven’t tried putting lemon into the batter – I would probably try lemon extract rather than lemon juice since too much could harm the consistency of the batter and deflate it. I typically add flavoring to the baked and cooled cake layer. You can brush a lemon syrup onto the cake layers and give it great lemon flavor that way.
Thank you Natasha for your response! I must share with you and everyone how simple this cake is as long as one follows your instructions to the T! And i baked it for my bday and it turned out perfect!!
Thanks so much. It’s a keeper 🙂
I will try the chocolate version and let you know.
You’re welcome Neha! I’m happy to hear how much you enjoy the recipe. Thanks for sharing your fantastic review with other readers!
Hi, how many grams of flour, please.
130 grams
Can I use cake flour instead of all purpose flour?
Hi Jenelle, I have made it with cake flour and it does work well if you prefer to use cake flour 🙂
hello miss. i would like to use your recipe, but for 1 serving only. is it okay to divide all the ingredients into 2? does it okay?
Hi Fritzie, I think that would be ok to cut the recipe in half and just bake in 1 pan or use a non-stick loaf pan (line the bottom of it also) so it can grow taller and you can cut it in half.
What size cup do you use
Hi Natasha, I use a dry ingredients US measuring cup where you can level off the top.