fluffiest cake possible

August 4, 2008 11:45 PM

How can I modify a sponge cake recipe to make it lighter? Not in terms of fat content... i mean "air content"-wise. How do I make a cake as fluffy as possible?

If you've tried birthday cakes from a Chinese bakery, that would give you an idea of the type of sponge cake I'm looking for. Very fluffy, very light, moist, not too sweet, very delicate. (NOT ma-lai-go, but birthday cake type sponge) I've been Google-ing for a recipe for this for YEARS with no results and had given up. Recently I tried again and found this very promising recipe. (My question is only about the sponge cake part) Just made it today with a couple small changes. Used cake flour instead of all-purpose and added 1 tsp baking powder, but it's still not nearly fluffy enough and it's VERY eggy.

Should I be adding more baking powder? And I was thinking to reduce the eggy-ness to use more egg whites and less yolks. That would probably help with the fluffiness too. But I'm afraid reducing the yolks would also take away the moisture from the cake. Maybe add more butter and milk to compensate? Might also try a different type of eggs if that might help? Used free range brown eggs, which I do find more eggy than restricted range (??) white eggs.

I'm planning on layering it with blueberry mousse, hence why I need to reduce the eggy-ness.

I also found it difficult to fold/blend the yolk mixture with the whites mixture. I ended up putting it in the oven even though it still had chunks of egg whites in it, as I had already lost a lot of the volume by this point and didn't want to lose anymore. So if you have tips for this, I'd gladly take them as well.

I've never truly modified baking recipes for structure before so am just totally guessing at this point. Or if anyone has a different recipe altogether, I'm open to trying that as well.

Thanks hive mind.

posted by cheemee to food & drink (14 comments total)

If you take out the yolks entirely you'll basically get an Angel Food cake, which is indeed extremely light, but can be a little dry. Pure egg whites, without any yolk, can be challenging to fold into liquids. The fat from the yolks destabilizes the egg foam, but on the other hand the lecithin in the yolks is an emulsifier and makes it much easier to absorb more water (or I guess your recipe uses milk); you basically can't put that stuff in an Angel Food cake.

For folding stuff together one tip is to take just a bit of foam and mix it with the heavier liquid, to lighten it up, before doing the rest of it. There's definitely a technique to it, that's takes some learning.
posted by aubilenon at 11:54 PM on August 4, 2008

Oh, my sources for the egg chemistry is The Dessert Bible, in which each recipe is prefaced by an explanation of how he arrived at the recipe (some starting point recipes, how he modified them, and what the results were at each step along the way). I recommend it pretty heavily (boy does everyone love the Boston Cream Pie from there).
posted by aubilenon at 11:59 PM on August 4, 2008

Are you properly measuring the flour by weight and not by volume? After measuring, are you properly sifting the flour?
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:01 AM on August 5, 2008

Back in the day, recipes for sponge cake would say to sift the flour (or flour and baking powder) multiple times before mixing them in.

You could try adding a pinch of Cream of Tartar to the egg whites while whipping them.

Some NZ sponge recipes have some cornstarch in them instead of some of the flour.
posted by slightlybewildered at 12:51 AM on August 5, 2008

You could try to replace a third to half of the normal flour in your recipe with cornflour (I think cornstarch in the US). As far as I know, you could also use that as a smaller replacement for your cake flour, I'd guess a fourth of the weight as it is already a lighter flour.

You could also maybe replace butter with a fairly bland oil, such as sunflower oil, to help with moistness.
posted by ArkhanJG at 1:00 AM on August 5, 2008

This thread seems to indicate that suet or lard or solid vegetable oil, along with commercial-type emulsifiers are the reason for the fluffiness. Also, it talks about whole whipped eggs.
posted by slightlybewildered at 1:05 AM on August 5, 2008

Oh - and this recipe here for Chinese Sponge Cake does include Cream of Tartar.
posted by slightlybewildered at 1:07 AM on August 5, 2008

My mum used to do one of 2 things (or maybe both).
1. Replace cornflour used with the same amount of custard powder (or replacing a third of the flour with custard powder)
2. Use duck eggs instead of chook eggs.
And lots of sifting of course.

I swear on my anecdotally derived old mum facts - that her sponge cakes were lighter than helium.
posted by strawberryviagra at 5:58 AM on August 5, 2008

Here`s Stephanie Alexander`s recipe and a photo - looks like you just need to change the eggs to better it.
posted by strawberryviagra at 6:01 AM on August 5, 2008

Are you folding the whites into the batter carefully? It should only take a few strokes to incorporate them and if you overmix your cake will be too dense.
posted by electroboy at 6:27 AM on August 5, 2008

Have you thought about a chiffon cake? The egg whites are beat separately and folded into a batter. Very light like angel food, not as sweet. That recipe I linked to is awesome!
posted by sararah at 8:56 AM on August 5, 2008

You may also be interested in some of the techniques of Passover cakes, which are unleavened but still light. Generally, you whip everything: start by whipping together yolks and sugar, then add melted butter and whipped egg whites.
posted by katrielalex at 11:19 AM on August 5, 2008

Back in the (even further) day, I was taught to whip together the butter and (fine, but not powder) sugar before adding flour (sieved at least twice) and then (pre-beaten) eggs, a little at a time. The idea was to whip in as much air as possible, at every stage of the process. This produces a really light sponge cake. Don't add too much baking powder, or the cake will be really tasteless.
posted by Susurration at 6:13 PM on August 5, 2008

Thanks everyone... time to go try out these suggestions.

And aubilenon, that book sounds really helpful, am gonna have to go pick it up.
posted by cheemee at 5:50 PM on August 6, 2008