Twelve Tips for Perfect Sponge Batter

Zehn Tipps für perfekten Biskuitteig

It has been a while since I last did a how to post. Shame on me. For that reason I wanted to give you twelve tips today to produce the fluffiest, lightest and best sponge batter. I love cakes with sponge batter, I especially love sponge rolls. If you would like to check out my recipes, please scroll down. I love sponge rolls, because they are fast to prepare, look all fancy and are perfect if you have company coming over. Sponge is also a nice and unassuming companion for any layer cake you want to create. It does not take over flavorwise, it holds back and nicely complements whichever buttercream or frosting you have in mind to fill it with. But sponge batter can be a bit hard to prepare. If you are not careful, it can get dry and it may not rise as much as you had hoped while baking. For that reason I have twelve helpful tips for you how your sponge batter is going to turn out perfect.

Check this Instagram reel for a visual how I make sponge batter

#1 Your eggs need to have room temperature

Eggs are what makes a sponge cake fluffy and light, so be sure to use the best eggs you can find and have them at room temperature. Why? Because they will be much easier to beat and will take less time. So be sure to use them at room temperature. If you are anything like me, you will most likely forget to take them out on time. So here is a little trick, put them in a mug with warm water while you take care of step two and you will be good to go.

Was mit übrig gebliebenem Eiweiß und Eigelb machen und wie einfrieren#2 Measure all ingredients BEFORE you start beating the eggs

Beating the eggs is one of the most important steps for fluffy sponge batter. This is because you are beating in air into the eggs so that they can lift the batter while it is baking. So if you don’t want your beaten eggs to deflate while you are rushing around finding utensils and measuring all remaining ingredients, prepare and measure out everything beforehand. Believe me, your batter will come together much better and you will be less stressed out when you start beating the eggs.

#3 Beat egg yolks and egg whites separately

There are different ways of creating fluffy sponge batter. You can either beat the eggs as a whole or you can do it separately. I seem to always get better results beating the egg parts separately, so this is why I recommend you doing it, too. I didn’t own a KitchenAid for many years, so I had to use a handheld mixer and believe me, if you want to beat the whole eggs, you will need to beat them for at least ten minutes or longer. Not so much fun with a handheld mixer, is it? Also, if you beat your egg yolks and egg whites separately, the total amount you need to beat is still much lower, so I still do it that why. And here is another tip, if you use a handheld mixer, start with the egg whites, you can then just continue beating the egg yolks without washing anything.

#4 Beat your egg whites in a fatfree environment and don’t beat them for too long

You need to be absolutely sure that your bowl and mixer are completely fatfree before you start beating the egg whites. If there is a little bit of egg white in your egg yolk, that’s no problem, but if you have egg yolk in your egg white, it may not get stiff. To help stabilize your egg white, I always recommend a pinch of salt or a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice. Here in Germany we don’t have cream of tartar, so this is our way to stabilize it. I usually add the salt when the egg white is foaming and changes color, becomin white, which usually happens after a minute or so. Originally I thought I had to beat the egg white until stiff peaks form, but I learned recently that that was a little over the top, you only need to beat it until soft peaks form (see picture below). This is another reason for me why I prefer beating egg whites and egg yolks seperately, it doesn’t take that long.

Zehn Tipps für perfekten Biskuitteig

#5 Beat the egg yolks until it is lighter in color and thicker

If you are using egg yolks at room temperature, it will take about two minutes for your egg yolks to change to almost white and be much thicker in consistency. Look at the picture below, would you have guessed that this is sugar beaten with egg yolks?

Zehn Tipps für perfekten Biskuitteig#6 Sieve flour and cornstarch

So once you have taken proper care of your eggs, you only are going to fold in any other ingredient. Remember that the eggs are what makes the sponge batter so light and fluffy? If you start stirring flour and cornstarch, you will deflate all the air you put into the eggs and you will have pockets of flour everywhere. We don’t want that. That’s why it is so important to sieve flour and cornstarch so it mixes nicely with the beaten eggs. You will most definitely notice a difference, so be sure to sieve your flour and cornstarch.

Zehn Tipps für perfekten Biskuitteig#7 Don’t stir in flour, but only fold it in

Remember that you don’t want to deflate your beaten eggs (I know, I sound like a broken record). So fold in your flour, I recommend using a spatula or a wooden spoon or a whisk. I personally prefer a spatula as it helps me to really check deep down there whether there are any flour pockets. So slowly fold in your flour mix carefully until everything is combined. And once it is, you need to be sure to bake your sponge immediately. Don’t let the batter sit around for too long, but bake right away.

Zehn Tipps für perfekten Biskuitteig#8 Don’t bake your sponge for too long or it will get dry

If you want to check whether your sponge is done, poke it with your index, if it springs back, it is done. But be careful not to open the oven door too early, if you are making cake layers, don’t open the door before 15 minutes are over as otherwise the cake may deflate. If you are making a roll, I recommend checking after seven minutes, sponge rolls brown really quickly, I always sit beside the oven and watch like a hawk. Sponge tends to have a rather light color, baking it for too little is definitely better than for too long. For rolls I recommend between 7-9 minutes, for one cake layer about 20 minutes. If you are going to divide your cake layer, no longer than 25-30 minutes.

#9 Immediately take out of springform, if making a roll, immediately roll up inside a damp towel

Do you remember that egg whites don’t like fat? For that reason you should never grease your springforms, only line the bottom with parchment paper. For that reason I like to immediately release the cakes from the springforms once out the oven so nothing can glue to anything. This also holds true for rolls, dampen a towel and place the baked sponge on it and roll it up with the damp towel inside. If you don’t do it while the sponge cake is hot, it is very likely that you will have cracks.

#10 Cut cake layers after it has cooled completely

I have often tried to cut cake layers when the sponge was still warm, very bad idea, believe me. So be patient and wait until it has cooled completely. I have also noticed that more crumbs are produced if you cut it on the day you baked it and less on the next. It doesn’t seem to affect the taste though, but for ease of use I recommend making the cake layers the day before. Be sure to wrap tightly in plastic wrap and keep at room temperature.

#11 Keep tightly wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature

You already baked the cake the day before and just want to frost it the next? No problem, be sure to wrap tightly in plastic wrap and keep at room temperature as it tends to dry out. If you already know in advance that the fully frosted cake will need to survive for one to two days, I recommend creating a sugar syrup you brush the cake with before frosting. Just heat the same amout of sugar and water and brush each layer with this syrup. Your cake will taste moist and don’t worry, it will not make the cake all wet and uneatable.

#12 Sponge cakes can be frozen

Sponge cake can be frozen for short periods of time. If you want to do this, I recommend wrapping each cake layer in plastic foil tightly. You want to make sure that no air can enter. Only freeze for shorter amounts of time, like a few weeks. When unfreezing, take away everything and place each cake layer on a plate. Unfreeze for about an hour. If you want to cut the cake layers, I recommend doing this before fully unfrozen. Also, make sure to brush the cake layers with juice or sugar syrup to keep them moist. The wedding cake pictures below was prepared with cake layers I had frozen for two weeks.

You need a few recipe ideas of sponge cake? Here you go:

Yes, I have made a three-tired weddingc cake for 100 people with sponge cake (freezing the sponge cake layers beforehand), the recipes can be found here.

Dreistöckige Hochzeitstorte mit Schoko-Drip

Letter cakes

This letter cake is still one of the most popular blog posts on my blog. I made one version with sponge cake and raspberry cream and another version of lemon and mint cream.Letter-Cake mit Biskuit und HimbeercremeJapanese cheesecake

There is a reason this one is called cotton cake as well.

Uruguayan Peach Meringue Cake

This is vanilla sponge with peaches, dulce de leche and meringue.

Uruguays Version einer Pfirsichtorte (postre chajá)

Banana Chocolate Cake

Chocolate sponge, fresh bananas and whipped cream, so good!

Schoko-Bananen-Torte mit Biskuit

Black forest cake

This is a German classic, chocolate sponge, cherry filling, whipping cream and chocolate shavings.

Klassische Schwarzwälder KirschtorteSachertorte

This is a classic recipe from Austria with a chocolate sponge cake, an apricot jam layer, and chocolate ganache.

Sponge rolls: Did I mention that I love sponge rolls? That’s why you can choose between a strawberry roll, lemon roll, raspberry roll, raspberry cream roll,

blueberry roll, Tiramisu roll, pumpkin and apple cream and another strawberry roll

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8 Comments

  • Reply
    Mary
    Tuesday August 24th, 2021 at 09:02 PM

    Herzlichen Dank für die überaus brauchbaren & guten Tipps ? – so gelingt mir Sicherheit jeder Biskuitteig ??

    Alles Liebe ♥

    • Reply
      Jenny
      Tuesday August 24th, 2021 at 09:23 PM

      Danke, sehr gerne. Falls es doch Probleme geben sollte, bitte melden.

  • Reply
    Thomas
    Sunday April 10th, 2022 at 11:14 PM

    Hi Jenny, klingt alles super gut, Danke ? – zu Tipp 8 – wie tippst Du den Teig an wenn Du die Ofentür nicht öffnest weil er sonst Zug bekommt??

    Lg, Thomas

    • Reply
      Jenny
      Monday April 11th, 2022 at 06:51 AM

      Hi Thomas, zum Ende der Backzeit darfst du die Ofentür aufmachen, im Folgesatz schreibe ich ja auch, dass der Luftzug insbesondere in den ersten 15min kritisch ist, wenn du einen Tortenboden backst.

  • Reply
    Rike
    Monday April 18th, 2022 at 10:20 AM

    Hallo, als Backanfängerin habe ich mich gefragt, ob ich erst das Mehl in das eigelbzuckergemisch siebe und dann den Eiweißschnee unterhebe oder erst den Eiweißschnee unter das Eigelb hebe und dann vorsichtig das Mehl untersiebe und hebe?

    • Reply
      Jenny
      Monday April 18th, 2022 at 10:47 AM

      Du solltest nicht das Mehl erst unterheben. Mein Vorschlag: Mehl/Speisestärke über Eigelb sieben und 1/2 vom Eischnee mit einarbeiten. Eischnee dann in zwei weiteren Schritten unterheben. Ich habe jetzt auch ein Reel bei Instagram gemacht, vielleicht hilft dir das: https://www.instagram.com/p/CcukXGdptY5/

  • Reply
    Anja
    Thursday July 7th, 2022 at 05:48 PM

    Hallo,
    was mache ich am besten, wenn ich den Teig nur nacheinander backen kann, weil ich nur eine Springform habe? Würdest du die Masse halbieren und auch auf zweimal zusammenrühren?

    Danke schon mal!

    • Reply
      Jenny
      Thursday July 7th, 2022 at 06:37 PM

      Liebe Anja,
      du kannst entweder, wenn deine Springform hoch genug ist (mindestens 4-5cm, du kannst auch noch den Rand mit Backpapier verlängern, indem du doppelt gefaltetes Backpapier als Rand in die Springform stellst), den kompletten Teig in einem Backgang backen, dann erhöht sich die Backzeit aber. Je nach Größe der Springform und Anteil an Eiern von einer halben Stunde bis 50min. Da ist die Gefahr, dass du einen “Buckel” erhältst und relativ viel wegschneiden musst, aber ich kenne viele, die so ihren Biskuit backen. Da musst du dich nur trauen später den gebackenen Teig in gleichmäßige Böden zu schneiden.

      Die zweite Variante ist die Menge zu halbieren und nacheinander zuzubereiten und zu backen. Da Biskuit sofort nach Zubereitung gebacken werden sollte, musste du warten bis der erste Teil aus dem Ofen ist, etwas abgekühlt ist, dann stürzt du den Biskuit, wäscht die Springform, bespannst sie neu, wäscht auch nochmal die Schüssel für das Eiweiß, weil die komplett fettfrei sein muss und dann bereitest du die halbe Menge ein zweites Mal vor und backst dann diese. Das ist leider dann ziemlich kompliziert, machbar aber auf jeden Fall.

      Falls du öfter bäckst, kann ich dir auf lange Sicht empfehlen dir eine zweite Springform zuzulegen, die sind nicht so teuer und man erspart sich viel Arbeit.

      Ich hoffe, das hilft dir, ansonsten melde dich gerne.
      Grüße,
      Jenny

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