Chocolate sponge cake decorated with homemade chocolate frosting and fresh strawberries. This incredibly fluffy, light and airy sponge cake is the perfect cake to make for any occasion.
Light and Airy
When I first made this cake, I was pretty shocked at how light and airy the cake turned out. I don’t think I ever had a cake come out so light in weight that I felt like I was holding nothing. It is so light that when I was frosting the cake, the whole entire cake tipped over, lol! Since there are no chemical leavening agents in this recipe, the whipped egg whites is what helps rise the cake in the oven. A couple of tips when making this cake.
Fold not Whisk
When dealing with whipped egg whites, you always want to fold it gently into the batter. The goal is to just fold until everything is incorporated. By folding, you are preserving the air and trapping it into the batter so when you bake it, those air bubbles trapped will help lift the cake. It is pretty cool!
This recipe is a great base to make for any other type of sponge cake. You can make an orange or almond sponge cake by just replacing the vanilla extract for other flavored extracts. If I had a pomegranate syrup, I would have brushed the cake with the syrup before frosting to provide flavor and moisten the cake more.
If you want to know how to make this, recipe is below!
| Servings |
8
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- 5 eggs
- 3/4 cup organic cane sugar ( or coconut sugar)
- 3/4 cup cake flour
- 1/4 cup organic cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ( or orange juice/ extract)
- 1/4 teaspoon cream or tartar
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
- 1/2 cup heavy cream ( coconut cream)
- 8 ounces mascarpone (Italian sweet cream cheese) ( or cream cheese)
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Ingredients
Chocolate Sponge Cake
Chocolate Frosting
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- Preheat Oven 350 Degrees.
- In a small large bowl using a stand mixer or by hand, cream egg yolks, sugar and vanilla extract until fluffy and creamy.
- In another large bowl, add the egg whites and cream of tartar and whisk for 5 minutes or until you get soft stiff peaks. During this process when you see the egg whites getting foamy, add 3 tablespoons of sugar.
- In a medium size bowl sift the cake flour, salt and cocoa powder.
- Now that you have all your components completed, it is time to assemble everything. Add a large spoon of the whipped egg whites into the In the egg yolk and sugar mixture and fold. Remember to not whisk only fold. Since they're no chemical leavening agents in this recipe, the egg whites are going to help with rising the cake and folding helps trap the air bubble int he batter.
- Add the remaining whipped egg whites and fold gently until fully incorporated.
- Add the dry ingredients into two or three batches and fold until fully incorporated. Remember not to over fold.
- Pour the batter into a round 8 inch cake pan lined with parchment paper and coated in non-stick spray or butter.
- Do not bang the cake pan to remove the bubbles. We want the bubbles because it will help the cake rise.
- Place cake pan in the oven in the middle rack and allow to bake uninterrupted for at least 25 minutes. The cake should be ready in 35 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
- Once the cake is baked fully, set aside and let the cake cool for at least 5 minutes in the pan before flipping onto a wired rack.
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler with heave cream.
- In a medium size bowl, add the mascarpone cheese or cream cheese and vanilla extract.
- Add the room temperature chocolate ganache and powdered sugar and whisk with an electric hand mixer until everything is full incorporated and frosting has thickened.
- Place the frosting in the fridge until the cake has cooled completely and is ready to be frosted and decorated with fresh strawberries.
