6 Inch Sponge Cake

This is a simple three-egg small sponge cake that is a great base for filled-layer cakes. You bake this sugar cake ina 6-inch cake tin. A sponge cake is light and airy. It does not need any rising agent.

You can make, for example, a small Finnish strawberry cake from this. In Finnish, this sponge cake is called sokerikakku. We Finns don't usually have buttercream in our cakes but instead whipped cream and something fresh like berries.

Why you will love this recipe

1. Taste: Finnish sponge cake is known for its light and fluffy texture and delicate flavor. It pairs well with various toppings and fillings, such as fresh berries, whipped cream, or jam.
2. Easy to make: It requires only a few basic ingredients, and the recipe typically involves simple steps
3. Historical cake: This method of baking sponge cakes is passed from grandmums forward to the next generations.

This cake serves 6-8 people.

Ingredients

• 3 Eggs. Room-temperature eggs whip the best, but you can succeed even with cold ones. A bit older eggs make better foam than really fresh ones. they should not be too old either.
• All-purpose wheat flour
• Potato starch. If you only use potato starch you get an even fluffier cake, but the downside is that it crumbles, breaks more easily, and is harder to cut into layers.
• Sugar. Even brown sugar works.

Equipment

• Three identical glasses
• Mixing bowl
• Electric whisk
• Sieve
• Spatula
• 6-inch cake pan.

Instructions

1. Grease your cake pan with some butter or oil. You can even add a layer of bread crumbs. Crack your eggs in one of the glasses. Pour an equal amount of sugar into the next one. Measure 70% of wheat flour in the third glass and fill the rest with potato starch.

2. Whisk the eggs and sugar to white and fluffy. This takes at least 7 minutes. Make sure there is not any water or grease in your bowl, this can ruin your foam. Do not whip with the highest speed, start with a lower one and increase to the middle speed. This way you get best air bubbles in your foam that are not too big and break easily.

3. Sieve the flour and gently turn them into foam. Mix very gently into an even batter.

4. Pour your batter into the greased pan. Bake at 350 F for 35 minutes on the lower rack in the oven. Let cool down before cutting it.

Secret tip to get perfect sponge cakes

Problem: The cake, which is beautiful and fluffy right out of the oven, usually shrinks as it cools. It sinks into the hole in the middle, and the surface becomes wrinkled. This clumping is caused by the negative pressure created when the water vapor in the cake's bubbles condenses as the cake cools.

Solution: to get a perfect sponge cake with an even top is to drop it from 10 inches high on the countertop when you take it hot out of the oven. Sound crazy right? This works though since it gets rid of that negative pressure in the cake.

Variations

• Gluten-free. Make the base from a gluten-free flour mix; add only 80% of the volume since it usually absorbs more fluid than wheat flour.
• Chocolate. Add two tablespoons of cocoa powder to the flour mix.
• Gingerbread spiced. Add 1-2 teaspoon gingerbread spice mix.
• Lemon flavored. Add 2 teaspoon grated lemon peel to the batter.
• With carrots. Add ½ cup grated carrots and 1 teaspoon cinnamon to the batter.

Problem-solving