When we were kids (and even now!) my Nan would make this Chocolate Sponge Cake whenever it was anyone’s birthday or other special occasion. Recently when my sister and her family were visiting from interstate I decided there was no better time to make this yummy Chocolate Sponge Cake for our dessert.
My sister and I have a bit of a running joke when it comes to our Nan making this recipe, while her Chocolate Sponge always tastes amazing, it also has a habit of being incredibly lopsided (lucky she won’t read this!) and uneven and my sister always likes to take a picture of it to send to me whenever she makes it.
I’ve always been a little intimidated when it comes to making sponges, but they really aren’t that hard to make and touch wood, I haven’t had a fail yet. To ‘fancy’ this Chocolate Sponge Cake up a little I decorated it with a generous amount of whipped cream and chopped up Tim Tams which made it all kinds of amazing. Next time I’m going to add some Tim Tams to the centre layer of the sponge as well – yum!
If you want to make a plain sponge cake, simply omit the cocoa and 2 tablespoons of milk, or you can check out this easy Jam and Cream Sponge recipe.
Chocolate Sponge Cake
Ingredients
- ½ cup cornflour
- ½ cup self raising flour
- ⅔ cup of caster sugar
- 2 tablespoons of cocoa
- 4 eggs - room temperature
- 2 tablespoons of milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- To decorate
- 300 ml of thickened cream
- 1 tablespoon of icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
- 4 Tim Tams - roughly chopped.
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (conventional oven) and line the bottom of two x 20cm round cake tins with baking paper and lightly grease the sides.
- Sift the cornflour, self raising flour and cocoa into a bowl and set aside until needed.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla for approximately 8 - 10 minutes until the mixture is thick and pale yellow.
- Working quickly, sift the dry ingredients again over the the top of the egg and sugar mixture, add the milk and gently fold the ingredients through to combine.
- Spoon the chocolate sponge cake mixture evenly between the prepared tins and bake for 18 - 20 minutes in your preheated oven until the chocolate sponges have risen and began to shrink away from the sides.
- Carefully remove the cake tins from the oven and let the sponges cool in the tins for 10 minutes before carefully turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once your chocolate sponges have completely cooled, combine the thickened cream, vanilla essence and icing sugar in a bowl and whisk until soft peaks form.
- Spread approximately ¾ cup of whipped cream on top of one chocolate sponge before carefully adding the second sponge on top of it. Cover with whipped cream and decorate with the chopped Tim Tams.
Does making a sponge intimidate you as well? What’s your favourite way to decorate/fill a sponge cake?
For more great cake recipes, check out my 10 favourite easy cake recipes post.
You can also find more yummy cake (and cheesecake!) recipes in out ‘Cakes for every Occassion‘ eBook – also available in a Thermomix version.
Veronica
Just tried this recipe and the cakes didn’t rise at all. I followed the recipe exactly. What could have gone wrong?
Lauren
Hi Veronica, I’m sorry the recipe didn’t work out for you. I’ve found if the eggs are a little old or if I’m a bit too heavy handed when folding through all the ingredients at the end and the eggs deflate quite a bit then the cakes don’t rise as much. I hope that helps x