There’s nothing like a beautiful sponge cake, a true classic of traditional Portuguese cuisine, but in Portugal, there’s no shortage of fantastic recipes for all kinds of sponge cakes: soft, filled, dry, chocolate, with syrups, citrus flavors, a bit of everything. In this case, we have the typical tall sponge cake. As you can see, this one fell a little after baking, but it was still perfect, very fluffy and creamy.
A sponge cake is one of those sweets that, when done well, is divine. For me, the secret to a good sponge cake (well for a sponge cake or any cake hehehe) is good ingredients, especially good eggs, and creating a very homogeneous and sandy dough, in a sponge cake, these two points make all the difference to the final result, so let’s check the recipe!
Portuguese Sponge Cake • Pão de Ló
The Portuguese sponge cake is a recipe with literally centuries of history, being used as a last meal for the condemned, a treat for someone sick or a gift for a godchild, delicious, rich and fluffy.
Ingredients
- Eggs – 6
- Egg Yolks – 2
- Sugar – 200gr
- Flour – 100gr
- Baking Powder – 1 teaspoonful
- Butter – To grease
- Flour – To sprinkle
- Salt – A pinch
Directions
- Grease a medium-sized cake tin (the ones that have a hole in the middle) with butter, line with baking paper, grease again with butter and sprinkle with a little flour. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and sugar for at least 15 minutes until the mixture is creamy and smooth. If necessary, pass everything through a fine sieve to make sure the mixture is uniform.
- Now mix the flour and baking powder together and sieve them into the egg mixture little by little, whisking for at least another 10 minutes.
- Finally, preheat the oven to 180ºC and pour the mixture into the cake tin.
- Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes (depending on your oven), you want the top to be well toasted and the sides golden/brown, remove from the oven and leave to cool, it will fall a little as it cools and when it’s at room temperature you can unmold and serve, bon appetit!
Some recipes say to whisk the egg whites and then fold everything in, but the truth is that the original sponge cake recipe never divides these two parts, so maybe one day I’ll have to make two sponge cakes and try it out to see if there’s any difference in the two ways to prepare.
Also, some recipes use flour with baking powder and others separate flour and the baking powder, just so you know, I think it depends a lot, and adding baking powder separately always helps to have a more precise dosage of baking powder and its “fresher” (chemical baking powder loses its efficiency the longer it is exposed to air) and therefore more efficient.
This recipe for Portuguese Sponge Cake • Pão de Ló was originally created on BakeAfter.com. Esta receita de Tradicional Pão de Ló de Portugal foi publicada em português no Iguaria.com.
Nutrition
2370 calories; 1210 g fat; 248 g carbohydrates; 31 g protein.Did you try this recipe?
Let me know how it turned out for you! Have you ever had Portuguese Sponge Cake? Leave a comment below ;D
2 comments
I love a classic portuguese pão-de-ló cake, its the perfect balance of softness and sweetness, thank you.
It is a lovely cake, it’s the kind of cake perfect for a small snack or tea, because it’s not very sweet, its more texture than anything else, thank you for the comment!