27 March 2010

Passionfruit Sponge Cake


FINALLY I have succeeded at making a sponge cake that rises beautifully instead of being an awful dry pancake. The trick is to find the right recipe, and I found this one in my Cake Bible book.
Look at that height! That's a decent size cake ya think?




This cake is filled with passionfruit curd and fresh whipped cream. I would have topped this cake with a bit of passionfruit curd just for the look, however the birthday girl was picking it up and taking for dinner, so I left it in a wee container for her to use when it was ready to be served, else it might make the top of the cake a little soggy.

The great bonus of this cake is that it is made with cornflour rather than regular flour and therefore is gluten-free. So everyone can love it!

Here's the recipe

Ruth's Sponge Cake - taken from the Cake Bible
2 tablespoons chilled water
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups cornflour
2 teaspoons plain flour (optional - obviously I didn't use this)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
whipped cream and jam, for filling
icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 190 deg C. Lightly grease and flour two 20cm round cake tins.

Warm water and sugar in a saucepan. Whip egg whites until stiff. Add sugar syrup and mix well. Add yolks one at a time, and beat until thick.
Stir in sifted cornflour, flour (if using it) and baking powder. Lastly add vanilla.

Pour into prepared tins and bake for 20-25mins. If you are brave enough, take the sponge straight from the oven and, still in the tin, drop it on the floor to get rid of excess air.

When cool, fill with jam and cream and dust with icing sugar.

1 comment:

Mary said...

Wow! This sounds like my dream cake--sponge, cream and passionfruit--fantastic!