For my birthday last month, my youngest daughter made a beautiful coffee sponge cake.
I love it that she has always enjoyed cooking with me. Even as a toddler she would climb up on a little stool to see what I was making and would “help” by stirring the contents of the bowl occasionally.
As she has grown, (she is now 17 years old), she has made her own choices of new recipes to try out, adding interest to sweet treats the family enjoys.
When my Mum was here, she had a theory; it was a very rare person who could make both a light sponge and a good batch on scones. She was the sponge maker in our household of years gone by; I was the scone maker, so it worked out well for us.
Now, we have discovered that my daughter is an excellent sponge maker! She has whipped up a sponge many times, with such great ease that I envy her talent, as I did my own mother’s.
Well, today being my mother’s birthday, I decided it would be a very appropriate day to share my daughter’s recent sponge treat, made for my special day.
Happy birthday, Mum….
Coffee Sponge Cake
4 eggs, separated (at room temperature)
Pinch of salt
1 cup of caster sugar
1 tablespoon coffee essence
1 cup of plain flour
4 teaspoons of arrowroot
1 teaspoon of baking powder
4 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon of butter
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease and baking paper line two 20cm round cake tins.
With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and salt until soft peaks form, then gradually add the caster sugar, beating continually.
Add the egg yolks and continue beating the mixture until it is light and creamy. Add the coffee essence and combine into the mixture.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and arrowroot. Repeat the sifting process three times. (My daughter assures me that the triple sifting is what gives the sponge its “lightness”).
In a small saucepan, heat together the milk and butter. Carefully fold the butter and milk into the sponge mix.
Pour half the mixture into each of the prepared sponge tins and bake for 20 minutes.
Decorate as desired.
In My World 
This sounds delightful! And yet, I am terrible at sponge (but great at scones!). Thank you for sharing the story AND the recipe. 🙂
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Hmmm….isn’t that interesting, perhaps my Mum was right with her sponge/scones idea. Maybe we should both try this recipe, and compare the results later! 🙂
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Interesting stuff! I travelled to Britain this summer and had my first ever afternoon tea with a scone, and it was absolutely delicious I decided to try and make my own last week. I might have broken a few rules maybe – I found a load of random scone recipes here and made 3 different ones! My friends were so happy when I brought them round for tea and scones, complete with real whipped cream. Lots of fun!
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