Basic Sponge Cake

Have I ever mentioned, I love light, soft, fluffy cakes?

Sponge Cake Ingredients

Zest from 1/2 lemon

1 cup sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

4 large eggs

2 tablespoons warm water

1/2 teaspoon real vanilla

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

http://hubpages.com/hub/Sponge-Cake-Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Whisk and sift 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/8 teaspoon salt.
3. In a different bowl, beat 1 stick unsalted room temperature butter until light and fluffy (~5 minutes).
4. Add 1/2 cup superfine sugar and lemon zest into the butter. Continue beating.
5. Add 2 eggs into the butter mixture, one at a time. Beat well with each addition.
6. Add 1 tablespoon warm water, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract and mix well.
7. Gradually add in flour mixture (from step 2) and beat well until batter becomes white and shiny (~15 minutes).
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Note: Unsalted butter did not mix so well with the eggs and in the end did not mix so well with the dry ingredients. And I got tired of beating the batter (I had to do it manually since I do not have an electric mixer) so I gave up and just baked the cake. The cake came out a little more dense than a sponge cake should be and did not rise so much, but still soft and light.