Sponge Cakes

Light, moist, and tender, there are no cakes more elegant or alluring than these. To achieve these qualities, most sponge cakes rely on a proportionately larger amount of well-beaten eggs or stiffly beaten egg whites to flour rather than on the chemical leavenings used in butter or oil layer cakes. (If baking powder, baking soda, or both are used, it is only in very small quantities.) The stiffly beaten eggs or egg whites provide the structure usually contributed by the higher amount of flour. The success of these cakes, therefore, depends on proper beating technique, which makes them a little more challenging but at the same time very rewarding.