Asian Sponge Cake With Fruit
A lot has happened in the past few months since my last post. tl;dr Rosie has cancer. It’s aggressive. It sucks. This is the only thing I think about, every minute of everyday, but I don’t want to write more about it here.
Baking is one of the only times where my mind can focus a bit on something else. And I did want to blog a bit more — this is a hard times blog, after all!
At the end of March, we finally finished our Gloomhaven campaign after THREE years of playing two scenarios every 3-6 weeks. Throughout this journey, character retirement parties have been one of the only occasions I’ve baked for in the last several years, so it was the only right that we celebrated in style. I made an Asian sponge cake with fruit inside.
I haven’t made this in years. At least a decade. And in college, I could never make a fluffy sponge, so this felt like a daunting undertaking. I was nervous, despite having made countless white people chiffons and other sponges as a professional many years ago.
But my technique has improved, and it was a success! I would make it again this way exactly.
Asian Bakery Sponge Cake With Fruit
This is an intermediate recipe. I have written about similar chiffon-based recipes on this blog, but an Asian-style cake has a lot less sugar, which makes the meringues less stable. I included more notes of common pitfalls people may overlook.
Part 1: Make the Sponge Cake
Preheat your oven to 350F (325F convection) and line the bottom of your baking vessel with a piece of parchment paper. Do NOT grease the pan.
In a large mixing bowl big enough for all your batter, combine:
6 egg yolks (save the whites for step 7)
75g sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
pinch salt
zest of 1 lemon (optional)
Beat with an electric whisk until the mixture ribbons and is visibly lighter and paler in color.
While continuing to whisk, drizzle in:
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup neutral oil
Sift over the egg yolk mixture:
130g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
Whisk together by hand until incorporated. Set aside.
Alternatively, you can do steps 1-6 in the stand mixer bowl, wash it out completely, and proceed to step 7.
In a stand mixer, whisk until foamy:
6 egg whites
Stream in while mixer is on medium-low:
60g sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
Beat on medium-high until stiff peaks.
Gently fold in the egg white mixture into the egg yolk batter in 3 batches. The cake batter should be thick and airy. If it’s watery and thin, it’s deflated.
Pour it into your cake pan(s) and give it a few firm taps on the counter to get rid of large air bubbles.
Bake until cake tester comes out clean. Depending on your baking vessel(s) this can take 25-50+ minutes.
Let the cake cool completely upside down to help prevent deflating. If your cake is too tall and sticking out of the top of your pan, create a contraption to prop it up!
Notes
The number one issue with this sponge cake is typically a deflated meringue and a dense batter. Two things here greatly help: cream of tartar, and properly aerating your yolk mixture.
Other recipes often skip step 3 and simply whisk the mixture until combined. But no, you need to properly aerate the yolks. Cream of tartar will stabilize your meringue a lot. If you don’t have it, sub with 1/4 tsp lemon juice or white vinegar.
To perfect this cake (which I have not) you need to whip your meringue to the perfect consistency. Too quick or stiff, and you have too much air that can rise too fast and deflate, like overproofed bread in the oven. Too little air, and you will have a flat batter and no rise.
The baking vessel here also matters. Ideally, it is anodized aluminum. Nonstick is too slippery and may impede your rise. You can divide the cake into several pans to shorten baking. I used the Bravetart 8”
Cooling the cake upside down is an angel food cake trick, but it helps! If you use the proper baking vessel, it definitely won’t fall out on its own.
Part 2: Fruit Prep
While your cake cools, prep your fruit.
You can use any fruit you want, and decorate it any way you want on top. The classic from my childhood is with strawberry. I also deeply associate this cake with kiwis on top, and melon is also very common. But anything juicy and sweet should work.
For the filling:
How thick to slice your fruit depends on your cake. For this cake, I used 3-layers of cake, so the 2 cream layers are thinner, and my fruit was 1/8-inch thick. If I were to do thicker cake with 1 layer, I would cut the fruit much thicker.
For the top:
If you want pretty, round slices of fruit, pay attention to the outer edge shape of your fruit as you’re peeling it. Any nicks or uneven peeling will make your fruit look ugly and asymmetrical when sliced into wedges.
There is no better time to pull out the melon baller for that classic look!
Part 3: Assembly
Once the cake is completely cool, you’re ready to assemble.
Slice off the domed top to level the cake, then slice the cake in half (or into thirds).
Make the stabilized whipped cream frosting:
In a microwavable bowl, mix and let sit for 5min:
4 tsp gelatin
6 Tbsp cold water
Microwave bloomed gelatin for 5 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until fully liquid.
Whip in a stand mixer on medium speed:
4 cups heavy whipping cream
When cream starts to thicken, stream in gloomed gelatin.
Whip until medium peaks. Do not over whip this.
Assembly order:
TOP cake slice
Very thin layer of cream
Fruits
Thin lay of cream
Cake slice
Very thin layer of cream
Fruits
Thin lay of cream
Bottom cake sliceIn other words, in between cake slices, add cream, put fruit on top, and then cover the fruit with a thin layer of cream so it doesn’t slip around.
Cover the cake with a crumb layer, then frost it all over. Pipe a decorative border if you wish.
After decorating the top with fruit, brush your fruits with apricot jam (diluted 2 parts jam, 1 part water) for a shiny bakery look. If you plan to refrigerate and serve it many hours later, I heavily recommend this step so it doesn’t dry out.
Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.
Notes
The number one pitfall for the whipped cream is overwhipping it. You do NOT want it to look too stiff. As you spread the cream all over the cake, it will stiffen more, and a stiff cream will break from all the motion and friction. Go for a soft to medium-peak consistency.
Unlike buttercream, which you can manipulate endlessly, you also have a finite amount of tries before your cream breaks, so no need to go for perfection here with the frosting.
You can also potentially overheat your gelatin and denature it, but this is not a fatal error. Your cream might sag over time, but if you eat it all quickly it won’t matter. I do think the gelatin gives the cake that distinct Chinese bakery cake texture though, so it will change the eating experience.
