ABC - Mile-High Vanilla Sponge Cake

I haven't posted anything in a while, I'm surprised I could even log in :o) This post is incredibly late, but I just couldn't get myself to skip it all together. The September recipe for the Avid Bakers was the Mile-High Vanilla Sponge Cake from The Weekend Baker. I love orange so I decided to make the orange-flavored version. Instead of 2 tsp of orange zest though, I used the zest of 2 whole oranges. I didn't measure it but it was probably close to 3 Tbsp. I was planning on adding finely grated semisweet chocolate as well but then forgot as I was in a hurry to get this cake in the oven. The plan was to take it with me to a friends house.

Luckily, it's Fall here now so it's a bit cooler outside where I cooled my cake upside down. In about 1 hour it was fully cooled. Yay! If you would like to join the ABC baking club, please visit the ABC blog to find out more details about how to join.

If you would like to join the ABC baking club, please visit the ABC blog to find out more details about how to join.


The batter came together quickly. I made a couple changes to the ingredients list by increasing the orange zest and reducing the sugar. Even with the sugar reduction, I still found the cake a bit sweet. However, others thought it was fine as-is.

The other change I made was in how I made the batter. I followed the instructions for a Chiffon Cake in The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum, because it was less work and because I thought it reduced the chance of deflating the batter. Basically, I combined the egg yolks, sugar, zest, orange juice, and flour. The batter consistency becomes that off thick cake batter. Then I beat my room temp egg whites with the salt and part of the sugar until stiff peaks formed. Take a small of amount of the egg white mixture and stir it into the egg yolk mixture to lighten it. Then gently fold in the egg white mixture in batches.

Final thoughts/tips:

• The cake was a big hit at my friend's house. We ate it plain and it was fine. Not too dry at all. The orange flavor came through very well. I even got  a recipe request :o)
• Hubby liked it as well. I served him a piece with homemade raspberry sauce. He loved that combo, especially the raspberry sauce ("did you make that? it's so good. You made it yourself?"). He's funny! The cake by itself he rated 8 out of 10, but the dessert as a whole with the raspberry sauce, he rated 9 out of 10 :o)
• I liked it too. The texture was very spongy and reminded me a little bit of the Angel Food Cake. The orange flavor was great and very pronounced. It just was a touch too sweet for me.
• Changes: used 10.5 oz of sugar (instead of 12 oz) and zest of 2 oranges (instead of 2 tsp).
• My other change was to bake the cake for about 35 minutes instead of 55 minutes.
• Don't forget to check out the other ABC bakers.