
Vanilla Sponge cake is one of the most basic cake recipes. Made from staple ingredients found in our kitchen, this cake is extremely easy to make. There are just 5 major ingredients to this cake – flour, sugar, butter, eggs and baking powder.
The British cuisine has a popular cake named Madeira Cake, which is nothing but a simple sponge cake. Unlike many other cakes, the sponge cake is set apart because it doesn’t require any fancy ingredient like leavening, shortening or products that are not easily available for home baking. The sponge cake is considered one of the earliest cakes that incorporated yeast-less baking technique which did not depend on yeast for the rise.
The secret to a soft, spongy cake is in the beating of eggs and butter mixture. The rise depends heavily on the amount of air incorporated during the whisking stage. Once the butter, eggs and sugar mixture is airy and light, the flour is folded into this carefully using a spatula.
Serve it as a tea cake by itself or use as a base for any other cakes that you want to make during a special occasion like birthday parties or festivals like Christmas. An easy recipe for a simple, moist and delicious vanilla sponge cake.

Vanilla Sponge Cake Recipe
Ingredients for Vanilla Sponge Cake
- 125 g Maida (Plain Flour)
- 125 g Butter
- 125 g Powdered Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/3 tsp Vanilla Essence
- Salt a small pinch
For the icing:
- 25 g Butter
- 25 g Icing Sugar
- 1/8 tsp Vanilla Essence
How to make Vanilla Sponge Cake
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Beat the butter and powdered sugar until frothy.
- Break the eggs into the butter mixture and mix.
- Add vanilla essence.
- Sieve together the maida, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.
- Gradually add the dry mix into the butter mixture and carefully fold it using a spatula.
- Transfer to a greased and floured cake tin.
- Smooth the surface and place it into a preheated oven at 180C for 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove and allow it to cool before de-moulding and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Icing:
- Beat all icing ingredients until frothy and light.
- Transfer it into a piping bag and keep ready for decoration.
- Once the cake is cooled, decorate as desired.
Notes
- To make chocolate flavour, add 2 tbsp for unsweetened cocoa powder to the dry mix. Sift it well to remove lumps.
- For an orange or lemon flavouring, grate the peel of the fruit and add it to the batter. You can optionally use an orange or lemon essence as well.
21 comments
Hi there ,tried your recipe today .cake did not rise at all .
Thx for teaching us this easy way ov making acake
Thanks for this beautiful recipe. Just best off all recipe i found on google. Superb!
Is powdered sugar also caster sugar and it’s says powdered sugar I didn’t think that icing sugar is good to mix it in the cake mix please reply to me to know if castor sugar is ok to use it
Hi,
Icing sugar is another name for powdered sugar.
Would not suggest using caster sugar .
What size pan do you use? I saw the same question asked but no answer
Hi,
I believe a 8 or a 9 inch pan was used.
What size cake tin is recommended?
We used a standard size.
To make the sponge, it stares powdered sugar, In uk that’s what we class as icing sugar, do you use this or granulated sugar?
Powdered sugar is also called icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar.
What is Maida flour? and assume that Icing sugar that we in England use to ice cake tops.
Maida flour is plain white flour
icing sugar is also called as confectioners sugar / powdered sugar.
Hi, what do you mean by powdered sugar and icing sugar? I live in America and we carry granulated sugar and powdered sugar.
Granulated sugar is the small granules of sugar used in baking. You wrote powdered sugar for the baking part.
Here, Powdered sugar is a very powdery form of sugar used in making frosting. …. you wrote icing sugar.
Can you clarify which sugar is comparable to what we carry? Thank you!
Hi,
Icing sugar is simply another name for powdered sugar or confectioners’ sugar.
I love this yummy spongy cake recipe.It truly tastes yummy . I did not put baking soda,just baking powder tho. More power!
Thank you for this easy and beautiful recipe. Really delighted with the result. After multiple recipes trial found this and Bingo. It’s truly a non fuss recipe
Extremely delighted
Hi what size pan have u used ?
Try this recipe.
Its really a tasty cake,easy to made,very sponge.This cake be ready in short time.Everyone can try to make it. loved it !!!!