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Sponge Cake Recipe: 5 Essential Tips for Making It

When and where was sponge cake created? Today we are used to buying ready-made sponge cake whenever a dessert calls for it, but this popular preparation has a history stretching back more than 250 years […]

bread recipe
From the recipe book Tutto Pasticceria
Reading4 min
DifficultyFor all
QuantityShared
Published03/03/2017
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When and where the birth of the sponge cake? The small story of a very popular dessert

bread recipe
Copyright gordonplant on FlickR (CC) 2.0)

Today we are used to buying the sponge cake ready, serving us to the need for our sweet preparations.

The sponge cake is a decidedly ancient preparation, which has beyond 250 years of history behind him.

The historical episode that gave rise to this recipe is related to a court emissary of the Republic of Genoa. Domenico PallaviciniGenoese ambassador to Paris at the end of the years ’40 Pallavicini brought with him part of his servants to France, and was his very young pastry chef, nicknamed (the real name was Giovan Battista Cabona), to invent the sponge cake.
On the occasion of the a reception for the court of Spain, the master asked him to prepare something unusual. Starting from the recipe of Savoy cookieCabona gave birth to pâte génoise, prepared hot, enchanting the palates of the real madrilegni. From this recipe, with some small variations and a preparation of cold, comes the recipe of the sponge cake, which is therefore in everything and for everything a sweet of Italian originSomething like that is done in the Iberian Peninsula, calling it, however bizcocho or bizcochuelo.

Michel Wolgemut, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff

It is true that the sponge cake Does not contain yeast?

On the net, as we know, you can find everything and the opposite of everything. So many recipes recommend theaddition of yeast: there are those who also push to face the times of a natural leavening, seizing the fruits at the level of taste and digestibility, and those who are satisfied with an additive that acts chemically for a almost instantaneous leavening.
If you are wondering what it was the original recipe of sponge cake, then we must immediately clarify that there was no trace of yeast. fine processing with the whisk and the kitchen whisk, using heat and rising power of eggs. For the sponge cake instead little flour, the softness of the potato starch, wisdom in the whipping of sugar, egg yolks and white egg.

What is the best flour to make sponge cake?

bread of bread flour
By Mudd1 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Prepare the sponge cake The secret of many pastries is perfect. Before the specific recipe, there is in fact to consider the choice of ingredients. Usually for the preparation of sponge cake flours considered ‘deboli’ are used. measure of the strength of a flour is measured through the pan-fitting capacity index, expressed through the W dairy). type 00 flour is considered weak and expresses a range What’s up? From the 90 W 170 WWWW. For this reason it is considered a must in the preparation of creams and desserts to the spoon – which makes soft and foamy, but also for sponge cake that must be voluminous and light. On the other hand, there is to say that The headlights 00 are the most refined ones, which have undergone greater processing processes to become so fine and impalpable. nutrient components and taste (such as wheat germ, fibers) which are essential for the most demanding palates.
The alternatives are there, but the more difficult flour, but that could be very well, is the ground grain semolina, which has a resistant and elastic protein mesh, capable of giving a fragrance and a special scent to our sweeteners.

sponge cake fast: should you buy it already done or bet on a ready preparation?

The choice is clearly linked to its needs. I ready are located in the best shops of online food and in all supermarkets, both in the classic round format and in other comfortable rectangular or square formats.

Those who have more time available – and all the tools in the craft, can prepare it by themselves starting from scratch, but a practical and fast choice is that of the ready preparation. Once you have taken the measures, you will find that this method is one of the most practical and safe.

Photo by Tamorlan on Wikimedia

There is sponge cake gluten-free for celiacs?

Nowadays we are now used to hear about cooking gluten freeFor celiacs, wheat flours and cereals are banned, the only ones substitute ingredients are those contained in the book published by the Italian Celiaci Association.
The choice therefore, for those who want to prepare a sponge cake gluten-free, goes in the direction of rice flour or of ready, which usually contain potato starchThe final result, if you work well the dough by fitting it properly with the whips, will not be identical in the taste to the sponge cake traditional, but will not let you be disappointed as to fragrance and softness.

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