Moist Vanilla Cake

This is the most delicious sponge cake you are going to bake. It is nice and soft and stays moist for days and doesn’t dry out. Start by pre[arng an 8-inch round baking tin by lining the sides and bottom with parchment paper. To make the cake batter, separate the egg whites from the yolks and place the egg whites in a large mixing bowl. With an electric mixer, whip up the egg whites for about 30 seconds until it becomes light and frothy then gradually add sugar.

Once all your sugar is added to the egg whites, keep whipping until you reach a stiff peak. This can take anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes depending on the strength of your mixer. You will know the meringue is at the stiff peak when you lift the mixer and the peak stays upright. Once done, put the meringue aside then in another mixing bowl.

Add the egg yolks followed by the milk, oil, vanilla extract, melted butter and sifted flour and cornstarch. Using a hand whisk, combine that all together until it reaches a cake batter-like consistency, Mix until just combined. Add a third of the meringue to the batter mixture and gently fold that through until well mixed then add the batter into the remaining meringue and fold that through.

Doing it this way helps to retain as much air in the batter as possible. Once the mixture is nice and smooth, pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and tap it a few times to get rid of big bubbles in the batter. This cake is going to sit in a water bath to prevent the edges from overcooking, to do that, place the cake tin in a baking tray and fill it with hot water about halfway up your cake tin.

Bake in a preheated 160C oven for about 60 minutes. Once baked and out of the oven, let the cake cool in your cake tin for about 15 minutes then turn it out to completely cool. This sponge cake is also slightly on the firmer side, but still super light and fluffy, making it a great option for layer cakes/large wedding cakes.