Basic sponge cake

It’s always good to have a recipe for a basic sponge cake in your arsenal. You can easily dress it up with some whipped cream and fruit, or use it as a base for a trifle — the possibilities are endless! Even better, this recipe requires just three basic ingredients and almost as few steps.

Duration: 15 minutes prep, ~25 min bake

Ingredients (for one 8-oz. ramekin):
1 egg, preferably medium-sized
1.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1.5 tablespoons sugar
Vanilla extract (optional)
A little butter and flour, to grease the ramekin

Instructions:

First, preheat the oven to 325F.

Combine the egg, sugar and a splash of vanilla, if you have any, in a bowl and mix until white and fluffy. It should look like this:

Next, mix the flour into the batter. You want to keep as much of the air bubbles as you can, so make sure you don’t overmix!

Now, grease the ramekin so you can easily pop the cake out once it’s done. First spread a small amount of butter throughout the inside of the ramekin.

Then drop a small amount of flour and spread it throughout the ramekin, like so.

Make sure you shake off the excess flour.

Pour the batter into the ramekin and put it  in the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until you can insert a toothpick into the cake and it comes out clean. Every oven is different (I know mine tends to run hot), so check on it as necessary.

Once it’s done, lightly drop the ramekin to the counter before carefully shaking the cake out of it. Let it cool to room temperature, then chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving.

Ta-dah! You can see at the top how it shrank a little during the cooling process, but that doesn’t affect the taste, so don’t worry. I finished my cake off with some whipped cream, strawberry jam and sliced, fresh strawberries for a shortcake-like effect. Add your own flourish and make it yours!