This month marks the one year anniversary of my food blog. What started as a fun side hobby between school drop off and pick up times quickly developed into a full blown passion for food styling and photography. What a delicious and exciting journey the past 12 months have been.
To celebrate my blog’s first birthday I decided to go back to basics and bake the quintessential celebration cake – a classic gluten free Victorian Sponge Cake with Jam & Cream. What’s not to love about soft as a cloud spongey layers sandwiched together with lashings of whipped cream and homemade jam?
The key to a great sponge cake is air, lots and lots of it. You need to work quickly and gently to ensure you incorporate as much air as possible in each stage of the baking process. Sponge is quite a simple cake to master and perfect for those new to baking as there are only a few pantry staple ingredients and simple rules to follow.
My three essential tips are-
- Ensure your eggs are at room temperature because cold eggs will not incorporate as much air as room temperature eggs.
- Triple sift your flour to guarantee a light and fluffy texture. Don’t skip this step it is critical.
- Very gently fold the flour through the batter one third at a time using a thin rubber spatula to retain air and distribute the flour evenly. To begin with just fold through a tablespoon of flour at a time to make it easier to incorporate into the batter. As you are folding ensure you are scraping the bottom of the bowl as the flour tends to sink to the bottom so you need to catch the flour to avoid flour clumps in your sponge.
This gluten free recipe will quickly become your new favourite basic birthday sponge cake recipe. All you need to do now is put the kettle on and bookmark under ‘tried and tested family classic’. Enjoy!
- 6 medium eggs
- ¾ cup caster sugar
- 1 tbs vanilla extract
- ¾ cup potato starch
- ½ cup cornflour
- 60g unsalted melted butter
- Homemade Jam
- Whipped Cream
- Icing sugar to dust
- Preheat oven to 180c and grease 2 x 20cm square or round cake tins. Line the bases with baking paper.
- Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla extract in electric mixer for 8 minutes until thick and pale.
- Whilst the egg mixture is beating triple sift potato starch and corn flour together in a separate bowl.
- Sift the flour over the egg mixture one third at a time and gently fold through the batter using a thin rubber spatula. To begin with just fold through a tablespoon of flour at a time and ensure you are scraping the bottom of the bowl with your rubber spatula to catch any flour clumps.
- Fold through the melted butter.
- Pour half the mixture into each baking tin and bake for 15-20 min or until cakes are springy to touch.
- Transfer to wire racks and spread jam over one sponge cake whilst still warm to allow jam to soak into some of the sponge. When cakes are completely cool add layer of cream and sandwich together. Dust with icing sugar to serve.
- Preheat oven to 180c and grease 2 x 20cm square or round cake tins. Line the bases with baking paper.
- Combine potato starch and cornflour in Thermomix bowl and mix 10 sec/speed 5. Set aside and clean and dry Thermomix bowl.
- Insert butterfly into mixing bowl and beat eggs, sugar and vanilla extract 5 min/speed 5 with MC removed.
- Transfer mixture to a bowl and very gently manually fold the flour through the egg mixture one third at a time with a thin rubber spatula (as per conventional method) to retain as much air as possible. I find the manual method works best here to retain maximum air and a fluffy batter. To begin with just fold through a tablespoon of flour at a time and ensure you are scraping the bottom of the bowl with your rubber spatula to catch any flour clumps. Once flour has fully incorporated into batter add melted butter.
- Pour half the mixture into each baking tin and bake for 15-20 min or until cakes are springy to touch.
- Transfer to wire racks and spread jam over one sponge cake whilst still warm to allow jam to soak into some of the sponge. When cakes are completely cool add layer of cream and sandwich together. Dust with icing sugar to serve.
Such a beautiful cake! Perfect for a party.
Thanks Karen.
Happy Birthday Helen!! You have done an amazing job this last year. Your blog is beautiful. Love all your photos and recipes – especially the Thermomix ones.
Much love,
Sia
Thanks for your lovely words Sia. Happy cooking!!
My friend swears by a similar recipe and her sponges taste great! I have no idea that I am eating a gluten free sponge! 😀 Congratulations on your blog birthday!
Hi Lorraine,
Thanks for your lovely comments and congratulations to you on your amazing success.
Helen.
Thank you for this recipe. I would love to make it but have 2 questions please.
1- The traditional VS has the eggs measured in the shell, as eggs differ in size should i just use 6 eggs or mature them.. some of my eggs are really big lol!
2- Is there no raising agent? GF gluten powder maybe???
Thank you
Also, if i want a fatter/taller cake can i add the ingredients by about 30% ? Thank you again
Yes you can increase by 30% but the two cakes layered together are already quite tall. I’ll leave that decision to you.
I asked cause i wanted to put into 9″ round.. Thank you again for the quick reply 🙂
Nargess I just use medium size eggs. I will update the ingredients to reflect this. If your eggs are extra large you could probably get away with one less egg.
There is no raising agent, sponge cakes do not need it because there is alot of air in the batter. Proper mixing time in the first step is critical, don’t rush it.
Thank you so much. I made this cake and you are right the air created from 8 minutes of beating makes up for no raising agent and then some.. WOW! lol! And i did leave out one egg to reflect. thank you 🙂
Made this and it was excellent. The only thing was I added some lemon zest to it which made for some interesting results! the top was very dimpled as it dried, and there were some pieces on the bottom which looked like very firm pieces of lemon curd! I learned my lesson there! 😉
So glad you enjoyed it Alex. Trial and error is the best way to learn. happy new Year!!
This is my coeliac daughter’s new favourite cake, thank you!! Looking forward to trying your chocolate sponge next.
Thanks Donna so glad she loves it Enjoy!! Most kids love the Apple Cinnamon Teacake too because it’s very light.
Hello. Thanks for the recipe. I’ve made this cake twice and quite like the flavour and texture. The one step I found a little difficult was folding the flour through the batter without knocking out all the air. I found the flour kept clumping and coating itself in the batter making it difficult to break it up. I had triple sifted and slowly folded through, but it was difficult to get it clump free. Any suggestions ?
Hi Cathy,
Thanks for your email. You are correct the folding method does require patience. I would recommend using the largest bowl possible, this makes it easier to fold. Also ensure you are lifting the batter as you fold. Here is a great video which demonstrates the folding technique I hope it helps you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=jXe-kTlTv8I
Hi, At the moment we have to be maize/corn free as well as the gf. What is a good substitute for the cornflour? I have tapioca starch, rice flour, sweet rice flour and teff seeds I could crush.
TIA
Sue
Hi Sue
You could try sweet rice flour I have not tried this combo so can’t guarantee the final result. Let me know how go.
Hi,
Is there an alternative to potato starch? I am in Australia and have tried to find it in my local stores and can’t seem too.
Thanks
Hi Evelyn,
You can find potato starch flour at any health food store or online at organic shops.
This looks amazing. Do you think I could take the recipe and make it into cupcake without any alterations?
Hi Rachel
They should be fine but the cooking time will be less just check them at 10 minutes. Insert a skewer and if it comes out clean they are ready.
Wow, I love this cake! Do you think I can make it into cupcakes without any amendments to the recipe?
Sorry for the repetition 😐
I’m thinking about filling and icing this cake with butter cream and wondering how long in advance I can make it so that it’s completely cooled by the time I ice it?
Many thanks.
It should be fine after 2 hours