Cheese and Pears

Italian Sponge Cake Recipe: paradise sponge cake

Posted on May 2, 2009 09:32:02 AM

Everywhere you go there’s a sponge cake recipe.

This called torta paradiso. Like all sponge cakes, it’s a perfect cake not only for breakfast, but for anytime you feel the urge to bake and you don’t have much time in your hands nor many ingredients in the kitchen. And inf the urge is still there, go for more breakfast biscuits and cakes.

From an Italian perspective, paradise sponge cake is more a concept than a traditional cake, as it’s always different but with one two constant elements: it must be made with basic ingredients, and must be as soft as possible. Basic means flour, eggs, sugar and butter; to make it soft, you’ll need to whip the egg whites separately, and substitute half of the flour with wheat or potato starch or flour.

But here are the ingredients for a not-so-large sponge cake:

• 4 eggs
• 150g (3/4 cup) granulated white sugar
• 125g (½ cup) all-purpose flour
• 125g (½ cup) potato starch, or potato flour, or wheat starch
• a pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 100g (½ cup) of butter
• zest of ½ lemon
• icing sugar to dust (optional)

Preheat the oven at 180° (356° F). Grease a cake tin with some butter and dust it with some flour.

In a bowl sift and mix together the flour, the starch, the salt, the baking powder and add the lemon zest.

Separate the yolks from the whites. In a separate bowl mix the yolks with the sugar, until the mix has a pale color and a bubbly look.

Whip the egg whites until firm and add them to the egg mix.

Melt the butter in the microwave and add it to the egg mix.

Finally, add the flour mix and stir just enough to put together all the ingredients.

Pour the mix in the tin and bake for 35-40 minutes.

The right moment to take it the sponge cake out of the oven is when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry.

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