A done-to-perfection Guyanese sponge cake has a moist and dense texture. It is just not a desert but a decent representative of Guyanese culinary heritage.
Let’s now get to the preparation part.
Ingredients:
- 1pound unsalted butter
- 1 pound granulated white sugar
- 1 pound all-purpose flour (properly sifted)
- 10 eggs (at room temperature)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla essence)
- 1 tsp almond extract (or almond essence)
- 1 whole zested navel orange
- 1 tsp Rum (optional )
How to Prepare?
- Preheat your oven to 350˚F.
- Whip butter with sugar until the texture becomes fluffy and most of the sugar crystals get completely dissolved.
- Add eggs one by one and mix into the creamy butter-sugar mixture.
- Add baking powder to flour and sift together.
- Add sifted flour, ½ cup at a time, to the creamy mixture. Mix them well until a smooth batter is formed.
- Add orange zest, vanilla essence and rum.
- Grease a cake pan with butter and pour the mixture into it. You can also use two 8-inch round pans.
- Place the pan on the middle rack in the oven. Bake for 45-60 minutes. Insert a tooth pick or wooden skewer to check if it comes out clean.
- Take the pan out of the oven and let it cool completely.
- Remove the cake from the baking pan.
Important Points to Remember:
Always use room temperature butter to make the creaming process easier. It also brings fluffiness to the battered butter. It is better to take out the butter and the eggs previous night. This way, you don’t need to wait for the butter and the eggs to come to the room temperature. In case, you need to make it spur of the moment, microwave the butter a little (it works though not the best option) and put the eggs in some warm water.
You can add colour to the cake. Divide the batter into 2 or 3 equal parts and add 3-5 drops of food colour of your choice to the divided portions. Put the batter in a greased baking pan. Swirl the batter with help of a wooden spoon to make a marble pattern. Add rum (though it is optional) and bake. However, adding rum will keep your cake fresh for a long time.
Give Guyanese sponge cake a try; I bet you will come back to this page to thank me.
