Sponge cake is one of the quickest ways to create a base for amazing desserts for that family gathering or for children or hubbies who love sweet treats (like mine). I first learned about the wonderfulness of sponge cake from a friend of the family, who shared her peanut butter tandy cake recipe with me. Guess what? It’s just sponge cake covered with peanut butter, and topped with a thin layer of chocolate. Can it get any better than that? It depends on what flavors you like, and how creative you want to get.
The Method
Sponge cake is made using the creaming method. This is where you beat eggs and sugar together until it becomes light and fluffy. Then we alternate adding in the remaining wet and dry ingredients. Finally we bake it, but to a lower temperature than most cake because we want it to maintain it’s moisture and flexibility.
Uniqueness
Sponge cake is baked thinner than most cake, and that means it’s excellent as a base to cake bars, topping with fresh fruit, jam, ganache, whipping cream, nut butters and more! It’s also great for layering fancy desserts, using a layer of sponge cake alternating with fresh fruit or jam, yogurt, chia pudding to make a parfait. The possibilities are endless with a sponge cake base.
You could roll up sponge cake with stabilized whipped cream or other filling for a classic Pennsylvania dutch dessert.
The Great Grain Swap
Traditionally, sponge cake would be made with cake or all purpose flour. When grinding our own flour, we use soft white wheat or a combination of soft and hard white wheat. Lucky for you, we can use any grains we want to create unlimited flavor profiles:
Soft Grains
- Spelt – sweeter, with a mild nutty flavor, lower in gliaden, for more sensitive individuals
- Einkhorn – nutty, buttery, and slightly earthy. A great “all purpose” grain
- Rye – adds a deep flavor, increases satiety and may help with blood sugar. Pairs well with chocoalte, but is more dense. Best used in smaller amounts with other grains.
- Oats – best used in small amounts if you want to add extra moisture to your sponge cake
- Barley – if you want a nutty flavor without adding actual nuts, this is a great choice
Hard Grains
These will require more liquid, since harder grains absorb more liquid than soft. Make it once with soft grains to notice the consistency before swapping out hard grains.
- Hard wheat – if you need your sponge cake to hold it’s structure better, use this or a combo of it.
- Kamut (Khorasan) – rich, buttery, almost corn-like flavor. Good for rustic flavor. Pairs well with honey or fruit.
Sugar Swaps
When swapping out sugar to these alternatives, you’ll want to consider baking for a longer time at 325 F to avoid over-browning of the sponge cake. If that doesn’t bother you, feel free to bake at 350 F.
- Honey
- use 1 1/2 cups of honey
- increase the flour to 320 grams.
- Coconut Syrup / Nectar
- use 2 cups of coconut syrup
- reduce liquid to 1 1/2 cups (180 grams)
- add 1/2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar for added leavening
- Maple Syrup
- use 1 1/2 cups of maple syrup
- increase flour to 330 grams
1:1 Sugar Swaps
If you’d like to swap to a less refined sugar without any other changes, considering using:
Whole Food Sweeteners
When using dates, we have dates soaked and blended, or date sugar (which is just dates dehydrated and then blended into a powder form). Dates have a lot of fiber and won’t dissolve like sugar – in fact it will absorb more liquid. It also has a molasses type flavor, so it may be too strong for lemon or vanilla flavor. We like it, but not everyone will. You should also know date sweeteners will significantly darken the appearance of your baked good, not great for picky eaters. Chocolate or coffee flavors, however, would pair great with date sweeteners.
Whole food sweeteners will change the flavor profile, and result in a more dense sponge cake.
- Bananas
- swap the sugar for 2 cups of mashed, ripe bananas
- Decrease the milk to 1 3/4 cup (210 grams)
- Pairs well with cinnamon, nutmeg, nut butters, and chocolate.
- Date Paste
- use 2 cups of date paste instead of sugar
- Decrease the milk to 1 3/4 cup (210 grams)
- Provides a rich, caramel-like flavor
- Date Sugar
- use 400 grams of date sugar (approximately 1 3/4 cups of date sugar)
- consider increasing liquid to 2 1/4 cup
- adds a mild molasses flavor
- the texture could be grainier, unless you blend it for a minute before using
- Date Syrup
- use 1 1/3 cups of date syrup
- reduce liquid to 1 3/4 cups (210 grams)
Liquid Swaps
- Fruit Juice
- can be swapped for milk to give a different flavor
- citrus – lemon or orange sponge cake
- cranberry – could be amazing topped with almond butter and white chocolate!
- Plant Milk
- make it vegan with coconut, almond, rice, oat, or other plant milk
- this also can change the flavor
- Coffee or Tea
- mocha sponge cake would be great topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit
- earl grey tea sponge cake with lavender for a more mature profile
- chai tea with cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla would pair nicely
- green tea or matcha with pistachios could pair together well
- Eggs
- use more egg yolks for a richer sponge cake
- use more egg whites for a lighter and fluffier result
Flavorings and Mix-Ins
- Extracts
- use almond, cinnamon, citrus (lemon), chocolate, peppermint, or other extracts with or in place of vanilla extract
- Cocoa Powder
- use 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- decrease flour to 210 grams
- Spices
- Grated Veggies
- how great would it be to add grated carrots or zucchini for a sponge cake twist on these classics?
- reduce liquid or squeeze out the liquid before using
Get Creative!
I hope the base recipe and method, along with many ideas for how to change things up and not get bored inspire you. Please try new things, and share your successes, learning, and more with others.
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