Sponge Cake by Dr. Octagon
Recipe by: Dr. Octagon Uploaded by Drimble Wedge
This morning I realized that we had a bunch of fruit that was just about to turn, so I decided to make one of my favorite easy cakes. It's a pretty basic spongecake sort of recipe, but it's very light and different than any recipes I've seen online. My mom has this great pan to make it in, it's like a torte pan or something so there's a lip that keeps all the fruit held in. I do not have such a pan, so I just used two 9" cake pans.
Preheat the oven to 350. Since I had two really thin cakes, I only baked them for about 15-20 minutes; if it's one pan with a thicker layer of batter in it, I guess 25-30 minutes would work.
Cake recipe:
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/3 cup shortening
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (You can use any extract you want the cake to taste like, I used a full tsp of vanilla because I love vanilla.)
- 2 eggs
I usually sift all the dry ingredients, then add everything else and mix for about a minute until everything's sort of incorporated. Then I turn it up to high and mix for another 3 minutes.
While it's baking, I cut up all the fruit that I plan to put on top. I used strawberries, blueberries, and peaches:
And also whip the cream. I put a bit of confectioner's sugar and vanilla extract in the whipped cream as well.
When the cakes come out and they're cool, invert them on plates. I spread some strawberry preserves between the layers, and on top of the top layers. The preserves help keep the cakes from getting really soggy right away from all the fruit juice. I use a very thin layer to avoid cloying sweetness. The cake looks way better when you use a torte pan, but who cares because it's tasty!
Then you just pile the top with fruit, glop some whipped cream on top of it all, and consume it all in several bites, before the heat ruins your whipped cream completely.
You can use whatever fruits you have on hand, and it's a nice light summer dessert (or in our case, brunch). Yum!
