Basic Eggless Sponge Cake

My mom did a baking class when she was newly married, and passed on the how-to-make steps to me! These simple baking steps are the most accurate ones I’ve come across, and using this basic sponge cake recipe (eggless!), I’ve done cupcakes, zebra cake, marble cake, doll cake, etc etc etc (oh yes! The two of us just love baking). My daughter’s 2^nd birthday is coming up in a month, in June, and she loves watching ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’. Well, easy guess on what cake I’m planning to bake!

To make an eggless sponge cake, first gather the following ingredients:

• 1 tin condensed milk / milkmaid
• 250 gms all purpose flour / maida
• 100 gms unsalted butter
• ½ cup or 55 gms powdered sugar
• 1 level tsp soda bicarbonate / cooking soda
• 2 level tsp baking powder
• ½ cap food coloring of your choice. It’s ok if you bake without adding this too.
• 2 caps food essence of your choice. (I personally love vanilla and pineapple)
• Around 1 ½ cups warm milk (if required)

Lets start baking:

• In a vessel, beat milkmaid and powdered sugar using a blender.
• Melt butter till it attains the semi-liquid form, which does happen very soon. Do not let it melt completely.
• Add the butter to the above and beat.
• Add essence and color and beat till light and fluffy. To know if it is light and fluffy, once you finish beating, stop the blender, and you will notice small bubbles arising out of the mixture. There, you have done it!
• In a separate vessel, sieve the all-purpose flour, cooking soda and baking powder together.
• Slowly add this sieved flour to the fluffy mixture. Keep mixing with your hands as you add. Make it a smooth batter.
• This batter generally tends to be a little thick. Add a little of warm milk and keep mixing till you get a batter with a dropping consistency.

To check dropping consistency, dip your fingers in the batter and lift them. If the batter tends to flow down smoothly and yet stick to your hands, it is done.

• Grease a baking tray with butter and flour (I generally tend not to throw away the plastic in which the butter comes. This comes very much in handy in greasing the tray). Do not leave any space without greasing, as the cake gets stuck after baking.
• Pour the batter in the greased tray.
• Pre-heat oven for 10mins. Bake at 180C for 15-20mins.
• To check if the cake is properly baked, insert a knife into the cake, if it comes out smooth, your eggless sponge cake is ready!