Sponge Cake Recipe
April 4th, 2008 by Leora
Has anyone heard of Esther Robfogel of Rochester, New York? This is really her recipe. It is from the Rochester Hadassah Cookbook, which was given to me as an engagement present by mother’s friend from Rochester. Her friend used to make ten sponge cakes a day before Pesach (Erev Erev Pesach), and she gave away about seven. One year our family was one of the lucky recipients of one of these sponge cakes. A few years later, after remembering the delicious taste of that cake, I taught myself to make sponge cake using Esther Robfogel’s recipe, which she titled: Never-Fail Sponge Cake.
Ingredients:
- 9 eggs, separated
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup cake meal
- 1/4 cup potato starch
- Juice and rind of 1 lemon or orange
Beat egg whites until they hold their shape; add sugar slowly. Beat yolks and add lemon juice and rind. Fold in cake meal and potato starch. Fold in beaten yolks. Pour into large size ungreased tube pan. Bake in 325° or 350° oven for 50-60 minutes. Invert on cake rack and let cool in pan.
And don’t do what I did my first year of trying this and use a square aluminum pan. You need to use a tube or bundt pan, or your never-fail cake will fail to bake properly.
Learn about the Sponge Cake painting here
Your depiction of the sponge cake is very soothing-looking and simply beautiful.
Discovered you via Elie’s Expositions.
Shabbat Shalom.
Thanks for visiting, TorontoPearl.
Love the picture. We are going to my in-laws in Rhode Island for Passover and I was wondering what to bring. Maybe I will try out this recipe. Thanks for sharing it.
Gail,
Just be forewarned that separating all those eggs requires concentration. Use at least 3 bowls so as not to mess up your whites.
It’s delicious. Like Marie Antoinette: no bread? “Let them eat cake!”
Yes; knew the Robfogels! And LOVE the Rochester Hadassah Cookbook….I’m STILL giving them for gifts, and I haven’t lived in Rochester for more than 30 years!
Sharon, excellent! So nice of you to say so. Maybe you know Shirley Aresty as well, whom I wrote about recently:
Portrait of an Older Woman
She’s the person who gave me the cookbook.
okay, i’m slow. is that the zest of the rind or the whole rind? do you chop it or grate it or what?
You get a hand grater and grate pieces into the bowl. Not too big pieces. I guess you would call that zest of the rind. The orange part, not the white part.
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Esther G. Robfogel (1904-1997) was my mother. I ate her excellent sponge cakes on Pesach and throughout the year for many decades. I hope that my granddaughter, Esther F. Robfogel, will carry on the tradition.
Oh, that is so sweet of you to leave a comment on this post! We love her sponge cake and all the recipes in the Rochester Hadassah Cookbook. I will think of her when I make sponge cake this year.
I’m Esther Robfogel’s daughter. Although I used to bake with my mom, baking was never my forte. As it happens, I was thinking about making mom’s cake this year. After reading your blog, I know I will. Thanks.
Thanks for writing. I hope I can share the baking process this year with my daughter (or my middle son – no hope in doing a together project with my eldest, though he can make a great chocolate cake with no help at all).
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Wow, I love the painting! Our matza meal here is coarser, so I avoid it in sponge cakes, but I love the illustraation! You are very talented. Chag kasher v’sameach!
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Thank you for posting this definately No Fail sponge cake recipe, Leona! I was writing the second part of a blog article on traditions and I wanted to include this recipe in it, so I went into my cooking program, Home Cookin’,it wasn’t there! I was so upset and was too lazy to go downstairs to get my copy of The Rochester Hadassah cookbook (I have 2 versions and love both!). So I thought and thought what to do, then brain kicked in and I Googled “Sponge Cake recipes from the Rochester, NY Hadassah cookbook,” and luckily landed here. So I will be posting the recipe on my blog sometime today. Like Sharon, I still give the cookbook for gifts, but I give them for engagement presents.
Most of all, I LOVE your drawing…I was so tempted to lift that too! LOL…you are one talented lady! I will be following you, just to see more of your artwork! Again, thx for the recipe!
Nice to hear from you, Marilyn! I’m glad you like my artwork.