Deep Dive No. 9: The Sponge Method

for all of the light, airy cakes

I chose this month’s deep dive topic based on one specific recipe that I wanted to create and share with you. Sometime over the summer, I was in Whole Foods wandering through the bakery section and saw a slice of tres leche. I began brainstorming some fall tres leche flavor combinations and decided that I was going to create a cozy tres leche recipe to share with you this month. But in order to do that, we first need to deep dive into sponge cakes.

Sponge cakes are fun to make, use minimal ingredients, and result in a light, airy crumb. Think angel food cake or genoise cakes. Roulades (aka jelly rolls or roll cakes) also fall into this category, along with chiffon cakes and Victoria sponge cakes. Basically, anything ultra light and fluffy uses the sponge cake technique and it’s easy to master, so let’s jump in!

egg whites whipped to medium peaks

the main components and process

Sponge cakes hinge on a few, very key ingredients: egg whites, egg yolks, sugar, and a low amount of flour. Occasionally, depending on the recipe, there may be a few other added ingredients based on the flavor or function of the cake, but generally speaking these are the big four. The big thing to remember is that sponge cakes contain no fat.

They also often contain no or little leavening agents so the bulk of the rise comes from whipping both the egg whites and yolks.