Shallow sponge cakes

Asked on 15 Jan 2020 by anniefromcrewe

Hi Lindsay - I make cakes all the time, and have just made the cake of the week - orange and passion fruit. However the recipe says put the mixture into two sandwich tins, but with only 115g of flour, two eggs etc. the mixture only makes enough for one tin, and subsequent cake is not really deep enough to cut in half and fill. I may just put the filling on the top, but is it me? Have I misjudged the recipe instructions?!!

Lindsey, Food Editor replied

Hello,

Do your sandwich tins measure 18cm across the base?

Did you use large eggs? We find that large eggs are often a bit on the small side. I always pick out the largest ones in the box (preferably at least 73g each).

Delia’s sponge cakes are not like any of the very deep sponges you see everywhere nowadays.

The proportion of filling to sponge is important so the recipes have been developed with that in mind.

This classic sponge cake video is worth a look is you have 5 minutes.

Lesson 1. Classic Sponge Cake

Best wishes

Lindsey

anniefromcrewe replied

Thank you Lindsay, I realised two eggs etc would not make a deep sponge which is not what I wanted anyway, but I clearly did something wrong!! I wondered if I had used plain flour by mistake, but I didn’t. Anyway it tastes delicious, and I put the filling on the top. I will try again though!!

Best wishes,
Annie