Image is for illustrative purposes only.

This is a chocolate version of the all-in-one milk sponge, made with whole eggs, cocoa and a little oil and milk, and lifted with cake emulsifier so everything can be whipped together in one bowl. The emulsifier holds the air in the batter, so there is no separate folding stage and no risk of knocking the mixture down.

The baked sponge is dark, soft and fine-grained, with a gentle cocoa flavour and a moist, slightly springy crumb that stays tender for days. It slices cleanly into layers, takes soaking syrup well and is a reliable base under ganache, mousse, buttercream or fondant-covered cakes.

Ingredients

The weights in the recipe table below will yield the following 'weight per unit' and 'number of units'. If you would like to change the recipe to cater to a different 'weight per unit' and/or 'number of units', you can use the Recipe Calculator Tool below the ingredients table.
Note: The Recipe Calculator Tool is available to subscribers.
Weight Per Unit: 1311
Number of Units: 1
Unit Size: 24 cm round tin, about 5 cm high
WEIGHT
(grams)
ALTERNATIVE METRIC INGREDIENT IMAGE CONDITION
A 475 9.5 Whole Eggs Whole Egg Eggs are one of the most common ingredients in a typical cake. Egg yolks and whole eggs store significant amounts of protein and choline, and are widely used in baking. Usually an eggs role in a cake is to add moisture and richness, act as a raising agent as well as a glue to bind the ingredients together. room temperature
B 365 12.8 ounces Sugar Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide. (In the body, sucrose hydrolyses into fructose and glucose.) Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides. Chemically-different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as artificial sweeteners.
C 275 9.7 ounces Cake Flour Cake flour is a finely milled white flour made from soft wheat. It has very low protein content, between 8% and 10%, making it suitable for soft-textured cakes and cookies. The higher protein content of other flours would make the cakes tough. Highly sifted cake flours may require different volume amounts in recipes than all-purpose flour. Using the scoop and level method, well-sifted flour usually produces 125 g per cup. However, most American recipes are written with 140 g of flour per cup, so weighing and experimentation can be helpful in baking unfamiliar recipes. Small weight differences can greatly affect the texture. American Cake flour is bleached; in countries where bleached flour is prohibited, plain flour can be treated in a domestic microwave to improve the texture of the end product. sifted
D 45 1.6 ounces Cocoa Powder Cocoa Powder (cocoa solids) is a mixture of many substances remaining after cocoa butter is extracted from cacao beans. When sold as an end product, it may also be called cocoa, and cacao. In contrast, the fatty component of chocolate is cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is 50% to 57% of the weight of cocoa beans and gives chocolate its characteristic melting properties. Cocoa solids are one of the richest sources of flavanol antioxidants. They are a key ingredient of chocolate, chocolate syrup, and chocolate confections.
unsweetened
sifted
E 68 2.3 fluid_ounces Milk Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Milk is processed into a variety of dairy products such as cream, butter, yogurt, kefir, ice cream, and cheese. Modern industrial processes use milk to produce casein, whey protein, lactose, condensed milk, powdered milk, and many other food-additives and industrial products. room temperature
F 1.5 Baking Powder Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid, and is used for increasing the volume and lightening the texture of baked goods. Baking powder works by releasing carbon dioxide gas into a batter or dough through an acid-base reaction, causing bubbles in the wet mixture to expand and thus leavening the mixture. It is used instead of yeast for end-products where fermentation flavors would be undesirable or where the batter lacks the elastic structure to hold gas bubbles for more than a few minutes, or for convenience. Because carbon dioxide is released at a faster rate through the acid-base reaction than through fermentation, breads made by chemical leavening are called quick breads. sifted
G 2.5 0.5 teaspoon Vanilla Essence Vanilla Extract is made with 100% pure vanilla beans. With a sweet, syrupy consistency, this Vanilla is ideal for use in icings, drinks and whipped cream as well as classic baking recipes. Vanilla Essence is commercially manufactured by chemicals and is more of a watery consistency as opposed to vanilla extract which is thicker and a lot fuller and richer in flavour. You can replace one with the other but use 50% more of essence. For example, for 1 teaspoon of extract, use 1.5 teaspoons of essence.
H 1 Salt Common salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent; the open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of solids per litre, a salinity of 3.5%. Salt is essential for animal life, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous of food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation.
I 2.5 Lemon Zest Lemon zest is the thin, brightly coloured outer layer of the lemon skin, removed with a fine grater or zester without taking the bitter white pith underneath. It holds the fruit's aromatic oils and gives a fresh citrus lift to batters and creams.
fresh
finely grated
J 45 1.5 fluid_ounces Cooking Oil Cooking oil is plant, animal, or synthetic fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking. It is also used in food preparation and flavouring not involving heat, such as salad dressings and bread dips, and in this sense might be more accurately termed edible oil. Cooking oil is typically a liquid at room temperature, although some oils that contain saturated fat, such as coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil are solid. There is a wide variety of cooking oils from plant sources such as olive oil, palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil (rapeseed oil), corn oil, peanut oil and other vegetable oils, as well as animal-based oils like butter and lard. Oil can be flavoured with aromatic foodstuffs such as herbs, chillies or garlic.
neutral flavoured
K 30 1.1 ounce Cake Emulsifier (ovalett) Cake emulsifier, sold as Ovalett, Jilk or sponge gel, is a soft paste that helps fat and liquid stay combined and holds air in the batter. It gives a finer, more even crumb and makes the mixture much less likely to split when the eggs are added.
1309

Recipe Calculator Tool

Using this tool, you can alter this recipe for your own requirements. Use the two fields below to generate new weights for the ingredients above.

STEP 1. Enter your Custom Weight Per Unit
The 'Custom Weight Per Unit' is already loaded with the weight per unit for this recipe but can be changed if required. If all you wish to do is change the number of units (or servings), just leave the current weight per unit.

STEP 2. Enter your Custom Number of Units
This is the number of units (or servings) you want this recipe to yield.

STEP 3. Click Calculate
The new weights for your adjusted recipe will be displayed in the table above.

Custom Weight Per Unit (grams) Custom Number of Units
Calculate

Method

STEP ACTION DETAIL CONDITION
1 Pre-heat Pre-heat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Line the base of a 24 cm round tin with baking paper. Oven fully up to temperature before the batter is mixed
2 Combine Put A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J and K (whole egg, caster sugar, cake flour, cocoa powder, milk, baking powder, vanilla essence, salt, lemon zest, cooking oil and cake emulsifier) into the mixing bowl together. Flour and cocoa sifted, eggs and milk at room temperature
3 Whip Whip on the lowest speed for 2 minutes. Dry ingredients wetted through, no dusty patches
4 Whip Increase to high speed and whip for 5 minutes. Batter pale-brown, thick, light and roughly tripled in volume
5 Whip Drop back to medium speed and whip for 1 more minute. Smooth and even, large air bubbles broken down
6 Fill Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and level the surface gently with a spatula. Even thickness, tin no more than two thirds full
7 Bake Bake at 175°C (350°F) for about 25 minutes. Springs back when pressed lightly in the centre and a skewer comes out clean
8 Cool Rest the sponge in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and peel off the paper. Completely cool before slicing into layers

Important Notes

The halved recipe makes about 1.3 kg of batter, enough for one 24 cm round tin about 5 cm high, or two shallow 20 cm tins. Scrape the bowl down once before the final minute of whipping so no unmixed flour or cocoa is left at the bottom. Cool the sponge completely, then wrap it well and rest it overnight before cutting; it slices far more cleanly the next day. Wrapped, it keeps 2 to 3 days at room temperature, up to a week refrigerated, or 2 months frozen. Because of the oil and milk it takes soaking syrup readily, so use syrup sparingly.

Tools & Arrangements

Stand mixer with whisk attachment, digital scales, fine sieve, rubber spatula, 24 cm round cake tin, baking paper, wire cooling rack, long serrated knife for layering.

Leave a Reply


No reviews yet.

Your rating
Add photos (up to 3)

Drag and drop your photos, or