Sponge Cake with Confectioners cream and Peaches

Sponge Cake with Confectioners cream and Peaches


This cake has been my favorite since I was a child. My mother made this cake for all her parties and dinners. The good thing about this cake is that is without butter and extremely versatile. One can add flavors or do any kind of icing, add custard, fruit etc to serve. One can even freeze the cake for a week. Once you are ready to use it, thaw it - dress it - serve it.


Ingredients:

1. 4 large or 5 small eggs

2. 1 cup flour

3. 1 cup sugar

4. 1 tsp baking powder

5. 1.5 tsp Vanilla essence

6. 1.5 table spoon boiling water

Preparation:

1. Sift flour and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Pre-heat the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a 9 inch spring foam pan for baking.
3. Separate egg whites and egg yolks
4. Beat egg whites till stiff with an electric blender
5. Add sugar gradually - 2 teaspoons at a time
6. Keep beating till the sugar is used
7. Add one yolk at at a time keep beating
8. Add vanilla essence
9. Add boiling water and add 1/2 table spoon a time till the mixture is thick and frothy
10. Gently fold in the flour with a wooden spatula.
11. Bake for 28 - 30 minutes till a skewer inserted to the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let cool for 10 minutes.

I usually cut the cake into halves when this is cool (very cool) at room temperature. To soften the cake, evenly sprinkle 3/4 cup milk, or juice of your choice in each half of the cake.

Last time I made the cake, I used canned peaches so I used the juice from the can to soften the cake. I made confectioners cream for filling:

Confectioners cream for filling:

Ingredients:

1. 2 1/4 cup milk
2. 5 table spoon super fine sugar
3. Few drops of vanilla extract
4. 3 egg yolks
5. 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
6. 2 tablespoon cornstarch

Preparation:

1. Reserve 3 tablespoons of milk.
2. Pour the remaining milk into a pan, add 3 table spoons of sugar and vanilla, and bring to boil.
3. Meanwhile beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar, the cornstarch, flour and reserved milk in a bowl.
4. Gradually stir in the hot milk, a little at a time, then pour the custard back into the pan, and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes, until thick and smooth.
5. Remove the pan from the heat, pour in the custard into a dish or a bowl and let cool.

Once cool, pour about 3/4 cup on one of the cake halves, level it to form a 1 inch thick layer. Once the layer has settled, top it with chopped peach halves or the canned fruit cocktail. Cover the decorated cake half with the other half to form a layer.

Spread the rest of the confectioner’s cream on top of the cake and decorate with the peach halves which ever way you like.