Recipe Box

Grandma's Glorious Sponge Cake

Posted by dmzlucka on Nov 14, 2009

My sister and I have been on a search for a recipe that replicates my Grandmother's sponge cake (her's was the stuff of legends! It was the glorious sponge cake, lighter than air with a delicate lemon flavor.Now as we are putting together the second edition of our family cookbook, we realize that Grammie has since passed on to that great kitchen in the sky taking with her the sponge cake recipe. Here, for your enjoyment, is the closest we can come to her dream on a plate! Sinfully good with a light lemon glaze!!

Ingredients

Whites 10 eggs (eggs must be room temp before you start)
1 teaspoon lemon extract (best to use the extrace or you'll have to use double of lemon juice)
Zest of 1 lemon
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cake flour
Yolks 6 eggs (room temp)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Instructions

Beat whites of eggs until stiff and dry, add sugar gradually, and continue beating -- they end up looking like soft beats but don't over beat!!!! In a separate bowl beat the yolks until frothy and thick. Add in the zest and the extract. Next, add yolk mixture to the whites. Mix gently or fold till nice lemon color. Cut and fold in the flour mixed and sifted with cream of tartar. Bake fifty minutes in a preheated 350 oven in an angel-cake tube pan. Be sure to check your oven temp....too cold will flatten it. Check the cake at 40 minutes to make sure its doing ok and not over cooking. Once done, turn off the oven and open the oven door -- it must cool slowly or it will fall flat. Once cool you can glaze it with a mixture of powdered sugar and lemon juice. YUMMY

2 Comments

Comments

dmzlucka | Sat, 2009-11-14 16:51

My Mom said that the cake is higher if you have the eggs at room termperature.

jamescollier | Sun, 2009-11-15 20:01

Mmm, I might have to make this for one of the family's holiday gatherings. Thanks for the tip on the eggs, too - that probably holds true in most baking recipes.