Sponge Cake
The sponge cake as we know today, is probably European in origin, and most likely was invented in the early 19th century. Prior to this, (16th-17th centuries) there were recipes for "biscuit bread", and "sponge fingers", that yielded a similar product.
Queen Victoria was fond of eating it during tea-time. Her "Victoria-Sponge" (pictured below) as it is called now, consists of two slices with a layer of jam, or whipped cream in between.
This long-time favorite has not changed much over the years. It is still based on wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, and eggs. The only fat in the cake, comes from the egg yolk. The basic version is created first by beating eggs and sugar long enough to get them creamy. The flour is added next. Some chefs beat the yolks with the sugar at the beginning and then add the egg whites later. As long as the mixture is baked for the proper amount of them, the result is a light and delicious product. Here is a basic recipe that has just five ingredients, eggs, sugar, lemon juice, grated lemon rind and flour. it takes about 15 minutes to bake. If you are a chocoholic you might want to try this chocolate version of the recipe, which has eight ingredients and gets 25 minutes oven time.
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