Japanese Sponge Cake

I love cakes but dread the ones that are too heavy or too dry. I wanted something soft and fluffy and at the same time not dry. Googled recipes for japanese cakes and came upon this:

http://www.japanesecooking101.com/sponge-cake-recipe/

Ingredients

• 20 g butter
• 1 Tbsp milk
• 90 g cake flour (reduced to 60g)
• 3 eggs
• 90 g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) at least 20 minutes before. Line a 7" cake pan with parchment paper (bottom and side). Put butter and milk In a small bowl and microwave until the butter melts. In another bowl, sift the cake flour 2 times. Set aside.
2. In a bowl of a stand mixer, add eggs and sugar. Over a double boiler (placing the bowl over a pot with simmering water on low heat), whisk the egg mixture until it becomes lukewarm (until the sugar dissolves). Then set the bowl on the stand mixer, and whip the egg mixture until very thick (watch video to see the texture). Add vanilla and mix.
3. Add sifted cake flour in 3 parts. Fold in the first one-third of the flour by hand with a spatula (not with the mixer). After the flour is incorporated, add the next part of flour and again fold in with the spatula. Repeat. Next, add the mixture of melted butter and milk and fold in with the spatula.
4. Put the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
5. Take the cake out from the oven and leave for 15 minutes. Finally, remove the cake from the cake pan.

What fascinated me the most was the perfect-looking cake. I followed the recipe except that I reduced the sugar to 60g because I do not like too much sweetness. I also used a 9x5 inches loaf pan because I do not have 7-inch round cake pan.

The cake was quite dry and didn't rise as much as I wanted it to.