Despite the hot weather, I keep having a hankering for cake lately. I want to bake cakes! I guess they just make me happy. Plus, I like sitting down with a small slice on a neat plate and giving myself a treat. As a compromise to the season though, I decided to try a recipe for a light sponge cake and as a little twist, an almond version. I love plain sponge cakes. I don't generally need a thick frosting on my cakes (well, unless it's chocolate ganache) and I really enjoy that lightly sweet egg taste.
This is also similar to the angel food cake except we're using both egg whites and egg yolks here. This is definitely more up my alley since I missed the fat that was missing in the angel food cake. I also love that smell and flavor of the eggs in the sponge cake. But like the angel food cake, this sponge cake relies on the eggs for all it's volume and contains no other fats (i.e., no butter or oil).
I decided to top the almond sponge cake with some almond-flavored whipped cream and toasted almond slices. Frankly, I liked eating it plain with nothing at all as well. It's sturdy enough that you can cut a wedge and grab it to go for breakfast. And being the serious chocolate lover that I am, I also tried it with some dark chocolate sauce but I found that overwhelmed the sponge cake too much so I'm saving the sauce for ice cream. I also discovered this cake would be the perfect base for strawberry shortcake. The texture is moist in the center but also surprisingly firm (in a good way). It would hold up well sliced across into two layers and filled with lightly-sweetened whipped cream and strawberries. Whipped cream and strawberries would be a great option to have alongside this cake as well.
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I decided to top the almond sponge cake with some almond-flavored whipped cream and toasted almond slices. Frankly, I liked eating it plain with nothing at all as well. It's sturdy enough that you can cut a wedge and grab it to go for breakfast. And being the serious chocolate lover that I am, I also tried it with some dark chocolate sauce but I found that overwhelmed the sponge cake too much so I'm saving the sauce for ice cream. I also discovered this cake would be the perfect base for strawberry shortcake. The texture is moist in the center but also surprisingly firm (in a good way). It would hold up well sliced across into two layers and filled with lightly-sweetened whipped cream and strawberries. Whipped cream and strawberries would be a great option to have alongside this cake as well.
