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Making a sponge cake, is sugar really necessary
yellowpark
Posts: 2,125 Forum Member
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Is it essential to add sugar?
Can I just add a little sugar?
I backed pineapple turnover cake for Christmas for friends,they loved it but it's just too sweet for me.
To make pineapple cake you need to put butter and brown sugar in the tin then lay the pineapples, which will be the top when you turn it over.
So for the sponge can I just add two table spoons of sugar instead of 125g of sugar 125g flour which I normally do when I bake sponge cakes.
Is it absolutely essential to add so much sugar for a sponge cake?
I can't find anything on the internet about this please help.
Can I just add a little sugar?
I backed pineapple turnover cake for Christmas for friends,they loved it but it's just too sweet for me.
To make pineapple cake you need to put butter and brown sugar in the tin then lay the pineapples, which will be the top when you turn it over.
So for the sponge can I just add two table spoons of sugar instead of 125g of sugar 125g flour which I normally do when I bake sponge cakes.
Is it absolutely essential to add so much sugar for a sponge cake?
I can't find anything on the internet about this please help.
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Thanks, I was worried the cake won't be a sponge cake if I don't add any sugar, I guess it's the self raising flour and baking powder that makes a sponge cake?
You might find that the sponge is heavy, and possibly hardly a sponge at all.
A sponge rises due to the air bubbles in the batter expanding when heated - the main raising agent is bicarbonate of soda mixed with cream of tartar (which btw will already have been added to self-raising flour) this creates carbon dioxide when beaten into a fluid, i.e. the cake batter, and the bubbles expand when heated. As hundreds of thousands of these mini-airbags inflate, so your cake rises.
The eggs and sugar within the flour set as the cake cooks, which provides a structure around the air bubbles (like the chocolate in an Aero bar).
If the structure is not strong enough, then the cake may rise up as the air bubbles expand, but then sink down again in the second half of cooking, or when taken out of the oven.
It's worth a try for the sake of a few eggs and some flour, but I think you might end up with something that resembles a Yorkshire pudding at best, or quite a heavy cake.
The orange and almond cake has 250 grams of sugar in, plus the natural sugar in the oranges, so hardly low sugar.
With the sugarless one, they say they use it as a sponge/bread pudding!
Doen't sound good.
Thanks I will do.
Brilliant, thank you.
Thank you, I will try and use less sugar at least once just to to see how it turns out, A fruit cake is sweet enough,adding orange juice, raisins etc, I don't see why I need to add a lot of more sugar.:)
Thanks
It's not mine, I got it from these folks. I hope you like it.
http://thelowcarbdiabetic.blogspot.com/2012/09/lowcarb-coffee-and-walnut-cake-with.html
Ingredients:
100 grams of ground almonds
100 grams of walnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon of melted butter
2 tablespoons of double cream
1 tablespoon of instant coffee
100 grams of clotted cream
Method
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
Melt the butter I used a Pyrex jug, add the eggs, cream. Place 1 tablespoon of instant coffee in a cup and pour some boiling water over the coffee, keep water to a minimum, just enough to melt the coffee. Then add the dry ingredients and mix. Microwave in a 700watt for 5 minutes. Allow to cool and cut in half. Spread on clotted cream and add walnut halves. Serves four to six, around five carbs per portion.
Looks nice, I might give it a go myself.
A cake like that is a more viable proposition than a sponge - it should have lots of flavour and texture due to the nuts and fat content.
The calories in the fat will probably equal those in the sugar that is left out, but if calories are not the issue, it looks good.
Well, I've just baked a pineapple turnover cake and it's delicious and spongy, I only add two spoons of sugar.:)
In future I'll certainly be reducing the sugar level in my mix batter.:):p
I will try this but I don't like the idea of baking a cake in a microwave, I'll put my in the oven.:)
Thank all for the replies.
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
10 tablespoon pineapple juice
1/2 sliced pineapples
1/2 cup butter
1+1/2 cups self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 table spoons of sugar
1/2 cup cold milk
It looks great and taste delicious, the brown sugar and butter makes a wonderful sweet caramel sauce,(this is where the sweetness from the cake comes from) with the pineapple and cherries, you can't go wrong, You do not need to add much sugar in the batter mic for this particular cake.