Fluffy Sponge Cake Recipe With Oil
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This fluffy sponge cake recipe uses plain flour and oil instead of the common self-raising flour and butter. Yet it yields a squishy, spongy, moist cake that you can quickly make and bake, ready to enjoy with your cup of coffee or tea in no time.
Simple Sponge Cake That Can Be Versatile
Cakes and desserts have always been my weakness since I was young. In fact, baking cakes and cookies or making sweet desserts were my favourite things to do in the kitchen. And it was the first thing I learned about making “food”.
When I was single, I was never interested in cooking savouries or a proper meal. But dare me with some sweet desserts or cakes, I’d take the challenge right away.
Of all the cake recipes that I have baked, this sponge cake is my favourite one. Simply because this cake is so easy to make. It’s a perfect recipe for when I don’t have much time messing about with all the kitchen gadgets and measuring ingredients. Plus, it uses basic, simple ingredients that many of us will almost always have in our kitchens.
And when it comes to the taste, this cake is a crowd-pleaser. It’s fluffy and spongy, it’s moist and not sickeningly sweet, although you can always add more sugar if you have a sweeter tooth than mine. And it tastes so light that you won’t realize you end up having slice after slice.
But most of all, this cake is so adaptable that you can tweak the recipe fairly easily to make any cake flavor you want. You can use the recipe for vanilla sponge cake, chocolate sponge cake, lemon sponge cake (that you can drizzle with some lemon syrup, marble sponge cake, Apple toffee cake, or Dutch spiced sponge cake.
Not only that, this recipe is so forgiving that you can make it with non-dairy ingredients. I’ve tried making it with almond milk and rice milk. Both gave me good results. Happy.
Everyday Ingredients
Apart from the raising agents such as bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and baking powder, this recipe uses only the food items most of us regularly keep in the kitchen/pantry.
You will only need plain flour or all-purpose flour for this sponge cake. So no fancy flour that you need to buy especially.
As for the fat, it uses oil. You can pretty much use any neutral oil. But the ones I’ve personally tried are canola/rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, and olive oil (the mild one for cooking, NOT extra-virgin olive oil). I must admit that I make it with olive oil more often now for health reasons.
And if you’re a butter-mad fan who always wants butter in your cake, you can use melted butter in the exact amount called for as the oil in the recipe. I’ve tried it too. And it tasted better, I must say. However, if I bake the cake in winter, I prefer to use oil. The reason is that cold temperatures cause the butter to harden, which hardens the cake’s texture. Especially after you leave it overnight.
The rest of the ingredients are eggs, salt, vanilla extract, milk, and natural plain yogurt.
If you don’t have yogurt, you can substitute it with milk. So, instead of using ¼ cup of milk as the recipe says, you use ½ cup of milk. But, add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or white vinegar into the milk and let it rest as you get the other ingredients ready.
Equipment needed
A Super Easy and Quick Method
1. I’m sure you’ll love this method. You literally just need to put all the dry ingredients, such as flour, baking powder, baking soda (bicarbonate of soda), sugar, and salt, in a large mixing bowl. And give them a good stir until everything is well mixed. Then mix all the wet ingredients, such as eggs, oil, milk, yogurt, and vanilla extract, in a separate mixing bowl or jug.
2. When your wet ingredients are mixed, make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and pour the egg mixture into it. Using a handheld mixer, whisk, or handheld blender, mix the dry and wet ingredients until you have a smooth, thick batter.
3. Lastly, pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake at gas 3.5 or 170° C/325 ° F (depending on your oven).
If you use a bundt tin cake like I often do, the baking time is approximately 30-35 minutes. I’d say you can check the cake after 30 minutes. Bear in mind that every oven is different; use this timing as a guide and keep an eye on your cake. Just do a test if you see the cake looks golden brown. Insert a skewer; if it comes out clean, it means the cake is ready.
You can bake the cake in 2 x 7” round tins as well. If you do so, the baking time should be faster. It takes about 45-50 minutes. Again, check the cake after baking for 45 minutes to decide whether you need to bake it longer.
Top Tips to Make a Variety of Flavors for This Sponge Cake Recipe
- Buttery cake: I made the cake using different types of oil, and they all came out tasty. I’ve used sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, olive oil, and canola oil. In summer or when the weather is warm, I like to use melted butter. With the exact measure of the oil. The reason I don’t use butter in winter or in cold weather is that it makes the cake hard and less spongy.
- Dairy Free: You can replace dairy milk with non-dairy milk. I’ve tried rice milk, almond milk, and soya milk. They all gave me the same result with just a subtle difference in taste.
- Lemon cake: Put the lemon zest from one or two lemons. Reduce the milk (liquid) by about 2 tbsp and replace it with 2 ½ tbsp of lemon juice.
- Chocolate cake: reduce the plain flour to ¼ cup (34 gr) and substitute with ¼ cup (34 gr) of good-quality cocoa powder. Then add an extra ½ cup of white granulated sugar and ¼ + 2 tbsp of soft brown sugar. I would also reduce the milk to ¼ cup (60 ml) and replace it with a ¼ cup (60 ml) of hot dark coffee.
- Chocolate marble cake: follow the basic recipe, and when you put the batter in the tin, leave about ¼- ⅓ cup in the bowl, then add a heaped teaspoon of cocoa powder. Mix it well, then gently pour it into the tin on top of the basic white batter. Then, using a skewer or toothpick, carefully swirl it around the batter until you see a marble-looking pattern. But don’t overdo it.
- Dutch spiced cake: Reduce the vanilla extract to one teaspoon and add one teaspoon of five-spice. I used the Dutch Speculaas spice mix.
- Vegan option: You can simply substitute the eggs with vegan eggs, or, if you have canned chickpeas or any other canned beans in your pantry, use the liquid from the can to replace the eggs. This liquid is called Aquafaba, which is now popular as an egg replacement. 3 tablespoons of Aquafaba is equal to 1 whole egg. So for this recipe, you will need 6 tablespoons of Aquafaba. Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I haven’t tried using Aquafaba for this cake recipe, though.
More cake recipes
Thank you for reading this super-easy sponge cake recipe. I hope you’re now intrigued to try it. When you do, it would be awesome if you could share your thoughts in the comments below (leave a reply). I really appreciate it
And please follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and/or Pinterest to sneak a peek at what’s cooking in my kitchen.
Before you go, don’t forget to check my other cake recipes that you may like.
- Mary Berry’s easy apple cake recipe.
- Carrot cake loaf recipe with mascarpone cheese frosting.
- Mary Berry’s coffee-and-walnut cake traybake.
- Apple crumbles cake.
- Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse frosting.
- Banana bundt cake.
Thank you and all the best.
An Easy Sponge Cake With Plain Flour And Oil
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups plain flour.
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder.
- ½ teaspoon baking soda bicarbonate of soda.
- ½ teaspoon salt.
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup granulated sugar.
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup oil see the note.
- ¼ cup milk see the note.
- ¼ cup unflavored natural yogurt. plain natural yogurt or Greek-style yogurt.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to Gas 3.5 or 170° C/ 325° F (depending on your oven)
- Grease and flour your preferred cake tin (check the note on top tips). It should be able to hold around 1.5-liter liquid. I use a medium-sized cake bundt tin.
- Put all of the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. If you want, you can sieve the flour.
- Then measure and put the wet ingredients in a measuring jug or in another mixing bowl. Give them a quick stir just until everything is well mixed.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Using a whisk, a hand-held mixer or a hand-held blender, give the ingredients a whizz for a couple of minutes until you get a smooth batter.
- Put the batter in the prepared tin, and bake for about 30-35 minutes until the cake looks golden brown and the top springs back when you touch the cake, or a skewer comes out clean when you insert it in the middle of the cake. and bake for about 30-35 minutes, until the cake looks golden brown and the top springs back when you touch it, or a skewer comes out clean when inserted into
Notes
- You can use either olive oil, canola oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, melted butter, or melted ghee.
- Although I often use whole milk, you can always use semi-skimmed milk or dairy-free milk such as almond milk, soya milk, or rice milk.
- If you don’t have yogurt, you can replace it with another ¼ cup of milk. But add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or white vinegar into the milk and let it rest while you prep the other ingredients.
- Make sure you use unflavoured natural yogurt. You can use either plain natural yogurt or Greek-style yogurt.
- Every oven is different. Please use the baking time as a guide. Once your cake looks golden brown, insert a skewer to test. If it comes out clean, then your cake is ready.
Nutrition
Devy founded So Yummy Recipes and Drizzling Flavor to share her love of food after exploring various cultures and cuisines for more than two decades. Her mission is to help others easily recreate traditional and non-traditional food with readily available ingredients. Her works have been featured in Reader’s Digest, Al Jazeera, MSN, Yahoo, Bon Appétit, and more.
I use this recipe for when I want to bake a quick cake. Whether it’s cupcakes or a chocolate cake, I just use this recipe and change according to the type of cake I want! Never fails.
I made this cake with coffee, moist, silky and delicious
Thank you for trying this sponge cake recipe. I’m glad it worked well for you. I must try it with coffee as I love coffee.