Sponge Cake for Strawberry Short Cake

Submitted by:  June Shockley
Are you tired of that same old store-bought disk of tasteless sponge cake you buy at the grocery store.  Try this tasty sponge cake instead.  Freezes well.  If you want to, cut the cake into individual slices wrap and freeze.  You can easily have strawberry shortcake anytime you have fresh strawberries.   Yummy!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup flour, sifted

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F
2. Use a large 5″ x 9″ loaf pan or 8″ spring form pan. Line it with parchment paper.
3. Place milk in a small microwave-safe bowl and heat just to warm (about 10 to 15 seconds). Mix honey in the warm milk, set aside.
4. Fill a large bowl with warm water, set aside.
5. Using an electric hand-mixer, whisk the eggs in a large bowl, adding the sugar gradually until completely combined.
6. Place the bowl over the large bowl with warm water, continue to whisk the egg mixture until it becomes light yellow (almost white), remove from heat and add the honey and milk mixture and whisk to combine and cool the mixture slightly
7. Sift flour, holding sieve nice and high above the bowl to get plenty of air in the flour as it goes down into the bowl, into the egg mixture. Using a large bubble whisk gently fold the flour into the egg mixture.
8. Pour the batter in lined pan and tap the pan. Tap very gently on the table to release any air bubbles. Bake at 350° F for 10 minutes, then turn down oven temperature to 300° F and continue to bake for about 40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
9. Remove cake from oven and grasping the parchment on both sides of pan lift the cake out, carefully remove parchment and place on wire rack to cool.

Use this cake to make strawberry short cake as you normally would.  

TIP" I like to use the Stabelized Whipped Cream recipe found under Desserts in this blog.