Sponge – our foolproof basic recipe

Preheat the oven to 200 °C fan. Put the sugar and whole egg into a stainless steel bowl and whisk the mixture over a warm water bath until it becomes lighter and reaches 35 °C. Finger test: it should feel pleasantly warm and no sugar crystals should be detectable. Make sure the mixture keeps moving and does not burn.

Once the mixture has reached 35 °C, remove it from the water bath and whip it with the hand mixer or the stand mixer until it is airy and even lighter. Depending on the quantity, this can take a good 10 to 15 minutes. Don't be put off by the time: it is the whole secret of this sponge.

The mixture is whipped enough once the Whisk pattern remains on the surface and does not sink. Mix White flour and starch and sieve both into the egg mixture. Gently fold the sieved flour in by hand with a Rubber scraper. The mixture becomes thicker and falls slightly, which is normal. If you want the sponge to be a real eye-catcher, now add gel or oil-based dye. Note: liquid colors and Powder color are not suitable.

Place a Cake ring on the prepared Baking tray lined with baking paper and fill it with the mixture. The Cake ring has no base and does not need to be greased; conventional Springform pans, however, must always be greased and floured. Put the sponge into the preheated oven immediately after filling and bake at 200 °C for about 26 minutes. It is ready once you can gently press down in the middle and it no longer "crackles".

Take the sponge out of the oven and invert it onto baking paper. This keeps the top and bottom nice and flat, so it doesn't bulge on one side. Then let it cool in the ring. Once it has cooled, run a spatula or a cake ring knife along the ring and loosen the sponge. The ring can be used straight away for baking again or put into the dishwasher.

The sponge is much easier to cut a day later, since it is still too soft when fresh. The simplest way is to divide it into evenly thick slices with a biscuit cutter. You can use the bases straight away or wrap them in cling film and freeze them for up to 3 months.