Simple Vanilla Sponge Cake

There’s honestly nothing simple and easier to whip up than this delicious vanilla sponge cake. After years of experimenting and testing out flavors, I have finally come upon the perfect cake base recipe. This recipe bakes you the fluffiest and most delicious vanilla sponge cake. It can also very easily be transformed into at least EIGHT different cake flavors.

I like to call this recipe “the only cake recipe you will ever need”. This is my go-to recipe when I’m looking for a cake base for any other cake or even dessert. If you choose to bake up the simple vanilla sponge, it layers perfectly in a trifle and makes a decadent base for tres leches (three milk cake).

If you are feeling adventurous and want to create a new flavor out of this recipe, it is perfectly adapted to accommodate that. You can transform this recipe into a lemon, chocolate, coffee, orange, berry, or even spice cake. With a few simple changes, you can become a cake wizard in the kitchen with this simple base recipe.

1 Vanilla Sponge Recipe – 8 Cake Flavors

• Lemon
• Coffee
• Chocolate
• Berry
• Spice
• Orange
• Coconut
• and of course, Vanilla!

You must be thinking if I am actually serious right now. Truth is, I am. Baking cakes need not be that hard. Once you have your base figured out, you can pretty much bake up any cake you like. It is truly as simple as that. I will tell you all the simple swaps you need to do to. Read till the end to find out how to make a few simple switches to your batter to create any of these flavors.

Simple Vanilla Sponge Cake

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Recipe by foodielassie

Course: DessertDifficulty: Easy

Servings

8-10

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

25

minutes

The simplest and easiest vanilla sponge cake recipe – bake 8 different cake flavors with one base recipe.

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Ingredients

• Wet Ingredients

• 2 eggs

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup neutral oil

• 1/4 cup butter

• 2/3 cup buttermilk

• 2 tsp vanilla essence

• Dry Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup white flour

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• a pinch of salt

Directions

• Preheat the oven at 160 °C if using both upper and lower heat grills. If you are only using one of the two, turn up the heat to 180 °C.
• In a bowl, combine your eggs, sugar, oil and butter. Whisk together using a handheld whisk or an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
• Add in the buttermilk and vanilla essence. Whisk some more until fully combined.
• In a separate bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients and mix together.
• Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients in two or three batches making sure to mix well in between. By dividing our mixture into parts, we avoid the possibility of having lumps in our batter.
• Transfer your batter to a baking dish or cake pan. I generally use a 7-inch cake pan.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Notes

• Lemon: Reduce the buttermilk to 1/2 cup and remove the vanilla essence. Add 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp lemon essence, and 1 tbsp lemon zest.
• Coffee: Reduce the vanilla essence to only 1 tsp and the buttermilk to half a cup. Add 1 tbsp of instant espresso to the buttermilk and mix together until well combined. Add to your batter.
• Chocolate: Add 50g of good quality cocoa powder to the batter. Increase your buttermilk to 1 whole cup.
• Berry:
  Blueberries: Add a cup of fresh blueberries to your dry ingredients and toss them around until fully coated. Reduce the vanilla essence to only 1 tsp. Add to your batter.
  Strawberries: Swap your vanilla essence out with strawberry essence. Add a cup of chopped strawberries to your dry ingredients and toss around until fully coated. Add to your batter.
• Spice: Whether you want to make a cinnamon cake or an allspice cake, simply add 2 tsp of your favorite spice mix to the batter. Reduce the vanilla essence to only 1 tsp.
• Orange: Swap out the buttermilk with 1 cup of orange juice and remove the vanilla essence. Add 1 tsp of orange essence and 2 tbsp of orange zest.
• Coconut: Add 75g of shredded coconut and reduce the vanilla essence to only 1 tsp. Swap out the buttermilk with coconut milk (optional).

See? It is genuinely that easy to create EIGHT different cake flavors out of one simple recipe. If you do decide on baking any of these delicious flavors using my simple vanilla sponge cake recipe, make sure to comment below or tag me in your stories and posts (@foodielassie). I would love to see all of your creations.