What's the secret of a light, fluffy sponge cake?

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I've just made yet another disappointing sponge. I can't blame it on the oven any longer - it must be me I'd love some pointers! I use the 4oz sugar/butter/flour / 2 eggs method, I cream the sugar and butter til it's light and smooth and I fold in the flour carefully. But they hardly rise, and they're kind of crispy round the edges. I used to be able to make a decent sponge cake, and I don't know where I'm going wrong!

4 medium eggs, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 8oz of SR flour/marg/ caster sugar and 1 teaspoon of baking powder (in the flour)

Cream marg/ sugar/ vanilla essence for just a bit longer than you think it needs (puts air in the mixture.)

Put in one egg with a table spoon of flour and mix. Same for the other three eggs (my mum always said this stopped the eggs from curdling.)

Fold in remaining flour. Split into two 8 inch greased and floured tins

Cook on 150 C for 25 mins (fan assisted oven) DO NOT open the oven until cooking time finished.

I also make a coffee cake like this with a desert spoon of coffee in a little hot water instead of the vanilla essence.

Butter cream- 7 oz of seived icing sugar with 3 oz butter or marg and a splash of milk. Vanilla essence to taste or dissolved coffee granules in a little hot water for the coffee cake.

I can't cook much but make a wicked sponge!

Well my attempt wasn't too bad, but it rose too much in the middle and hardly rose at all at the edges, which I think means the temperature was too high? The edges were also a bit crispy... Anyway, it tasted ok but I think I will experiment with some other methods and see if I can be more successful.

My cakes are always light, yet moist. The secret is that I don't have a fan oven, but a gas oven.

A good sponge cake needs the following:

The right size tins
The correct oven temperature
Measure the ingredients exactly
Eggs at room temperature

I use the 3 egg all-in-one method and use tub Stork instead of butter, pus 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Don't overmix or you will develop the gluten in the flour and the cake won't rise as much.

I divide the mixture between 2 7" sandwich tins that have been base lined with baking parchment and well greased (greasing the sides helps the cakes rise as ell) and bake at gas mark 4 (160 deg fan oven) for about 25 minutes.

Leave the cakes in the tins for a couple of minutes before turning out.

Conversely, my gas oven is rubbish for cakes because the temp throughout is so uneven, whereas my mum's electric fan oven is perfect so I always nip over and pop them in hers.

It does sound like your oven temp is squiffy OP. You can get oven thermometers off Amazon fairly cheaply to check it.

That's why you always use the middle shelf of a gas oven Elphaba. I can easily fit two 8 inch cake tins on my oven shelves side by side.

I like having a gas oven because of the variation in temperature between the top and the bottom and make full use of this versatility.

4 things. Years of practice....

Use nigella's recipe from Domestic Goddess

Cream the butter & sugar until it's very, very pale

Pretend you have a broken wrist to fold in the flour. Less is more

Stop cooking just before you think it's done

Perfection!

Never use parchment, not necessary. Just butter the tins really well.

I always separate the eggs and add a little milk when adding the yolks and the flour. I whisk the whites and fold them in.

I also use plain flour and for 240g flour (3 eggs) use 3 x 3/4 tsp.

An electric beater.

no way, make a cake in a slow cooker....

Cake made in Slow Cooker

Right, here you go.

Use your normal cake recipe, or a packet mix, whatever suits you.

I have an oval 6.5ltr, which I use to make cakes in. To the slow cooker I add about an inch of water in the bottom. I then add the cake mix to my chosen greased tin, either a loaf tin or a round one. I use actual metal tins, but silicone works well too. I then cook on high for about two hours, but tend to check from about an hour forty mins.

If you have around slow cooker I'd advise greasing the pot, then using a cake tin liner if you can't fit a cake tin in. Again, two hours on high, checking toward the end.

That's it. It's that simple. Lovely, moist, spongey cake. Yummy.

use 3 x 3/4 tsp baking powder!

what size are your tins? 4/2 i'd use for 6 inch tins....i always use stork for vicky sponges, if it is good enough for La Berry, it's good enough for me!

7 inch tins use 3 eggs
8 inch tins use 4 eggs

Use metal tins, I find silicone very very poor for baking, I do not think the heat transfers properly which means the cake is in the oven longer and dried out by the time it is cooked through

watch your oven is not too hot, i think 160 ish...i have a temperamental range so am not good at exact temps, and don't have it on a high shelf...again, this may be irrelevant if your oven is more modern than mine :o

I only use baking paper to line tins these days...greaseproof seems to have gone all weird and icky.

I also only mix by hand...big bowl, wooden spoon, I think it is very easy to over work the mix when the eggs and flour are in and doing by hand is gentler.

Also try and line teh sides as well as the bottom of the tins...it really helps to get a deep straight sided sponge, if the mix reaches the top edge of the tin it will tend to dome, if you have the sides lined it will continue to rise up.

You need an electric whisk to cream the butter and sugar otherwise you will never get a fluffy sponge by hand.

And use stork margarine not butter.

I use butter in my cakes and don't have a problem with them rising (polishes halo).

I make sure the butter is soft to the point that you can leave a thumb print in it; cream sugar and butter with a hand mixer for at least 5 minutes until the mixture looks like vanilla ice cream; and add half a teaspoon of baking powder to the self-raising flour.

use half flour half corn flour.
equal weights butter sugar eggs (weighted in shell) flour.
use the 'conventional' setting of the oven, the fan dries out.

Lots for me to try then! I do use silicone cases (I can't remember if I said that). I'll be disappointed if there's whats causing the problem because I really, really hate lining cake tins

I remembered that I have a hand mixer so I did use that, but then I was worried about over mixing. Is that possible?

I will get a thermometre and check my oven temperature. And I will use margarine next time!

There what's, not there's whats

"because I really, really hate lining cake tins"

You can buy pre-cut baking parchment from Lakeland. I agree that metal cake tins give much better results. Yes, you can overmix, especially once the flour has been added because it develops the gluten which then prevents the cake from rising.

I use tub Stork BTW.

Thanks everyone - really interesting thread and useful tips to someone else whose victoria sponges are not what they used to be!
Anyone have any experience, good or bad, of using the shaped cake tin lining papers that Lakeland sell - look like giant cup cake cases?

Yeah - I've used them. They work well and they're handy but they leave ridges on your cakes obviously. I only use them on some loaves where that doesn't bother me. Wouldn't use them on round cakes (unless I was going for a monster cupcake look).

I just use the round flat ones to base line the tins, and grease the sides. My cakes always rise beautifully.

I apply cake release spray (from supermarket) to my non-stick cake tins.

No need to bother with lining tins.

McDougall's 'Supreme Sponge' premium self raising flour. MIL makes beautiful sponge cakes so I asked for her recipe and was when mine didn't turn out like hers. She said 'Oh I do always use this particular flour'. So I tried it - hey presto. Beautifully light fluffy sponge.