Superb Sponge Cake Recipe (Pan di Spagna)

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You need only three ingredients to make the Superb Sponge Cake Recipe ( Pan di Spagna): eggs, flour, and sugar.

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When I was a child, one day a week, my grandmother allowed her grandchildren to sleep at her house. For us children, it was a big gathering.
The next morning for breakfast on the table was a soft Superb Sponge Cake freshly baked emanating a vanilla and lemon fragrance. The cake was dipped into fresh milk that brought love and warmth all throughout my body. ?

Where did sponge cake – Pan di Spagna originated?

The Sponge cake – Pan di Spagna was created by a chef from Genoa Giovan Battista Cabona, in the 1700s, accompanying the Marquis Domenico Pallavicini in Madrid for an important banquet. For that occasion he served a very light and fluffy dessert. The Cake pleased the Spanish Royal who named it “Pate`Genoise”.
Later it took the name of “Pan di Spagna” with some changing in the preparation of the cake.

Genoa is the beautiful capital of the Riviera Ligure.
Francesco Petrarca (a writer, poet and Italian philosopher, considered the founder of humanism and one of the cornerstones of Italian literature) called Genoa “La Superba” The Superb.

He wrote:
“You’ll see a royal city, which leans against an alpine hill, Genoa is so stately, superb, that her aspect can only be described as the Lady of the Sea”.

Superb Sponge Cake Recipe (Pan di Spagna)

solo-dolce

5 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 35 mins

Total Time 55 mins

Course Cakes and Pies

Cuisine Italian

Ingredients

  

• 5 medium eggs room temperature
• 130 g flour 00 4.6 oz
• 30 g potato starch 1.1 oz
• 150 g sugar ⅔ cup
• 1 grated lemon peel
• 1 scraped vanilla bean

Instructions

 

• Mix the eggs with the sugar.
• Beat the mixture in a mixer for 15-20 minutes at medium speed (*).
• Add the sifted flour and starch potatoes with a spatula from the bottom to the top to obtain a homogeneous consistency.
• Put the mixture into the cake pan (24 cm in diameter – 9-inch round and 1 1/2 inch deep) properly greased and lightly floured.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (356°F) for about 40-50 minutes, never open the oven before 35 minutes.
• Do the toothpick test to check cooking,  insert it in centers, and has to come out clean.
• After the time necessary to allow it to cool and remove it from the mold.
• Allow the sponge cake to cool completely before slicing.

Notes

(*) Low or high-speed results in poor absorption of air. Beat the eggs for a long time the cake loses its consistency during cooking.

ENJOY!

Keyword baking, pan di Spagna, sponge cake

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