A delicious, light vanilla sponge birthday cake recipe. Quick and simple to make and perfect for decorating to make a birthday really special.
When I was a child I loved the birthday cakes my mum made and decorated for me. At my parties, I was always really proud to show off my birthday cake to my friends. In the weeks running up to my birthday, I used to look through my mum’s cake decorating book and choose the cake I wanted (actually I always chose the fairy castle, but never got it).
Now I have my own children, it’s important to me to do the same for them. Rather than choosing from a book, I let them describe what they want and then scour the internet for inspiration to achieve it (I don’t know what I’d do without Google Images and Pinterest). Today is my littlest’s second birthday so I thought it would be a good time to share with you the recipe I use for making the vanilla sponge which goes inside most of the cakes I make for my family. The recipe is adapted from a book called Cake Magic by Virginia Welsh and Alison French – the same book I chose my cakes from when I was little.
The theme I was given for today’s cake was Chuggington. I was told it must include an engine shed, three trains (Wilson, Koko and Brewster), and a turntable (they don’t ask for much!). I’m not a professional cake decorator, but what I lack in skill I hopefully make up for in enthusiasm and effort.
Equipment
To make my vanilla sponge I’d recommend the following equipment…
NOTE – These are affiliate links which means that if you purchase from Amazon after clicking on one the product links below I will earn a small commission.
Accurate scales are essential when baking and I love these Electronic Scales from Salter. You can reset the weight every time you add a new ingredient which is perfect for something like this all-in-one sponge. They’re also compact so take up hardly any space in your cupboards.
If I’m making a round cake I use these tins
from Delia Smith (well if it’s good enough for Delia then it’s good enough for me!).
Instead of using greaseproof paper to line your cake tins I recommend trying these Bake-o-Glide reusable liners
. There’s no need to grease the tin as they’re easily removed, and they’re pre-cut to size so there’s no fiddling around trying to get the greaseproof cut to the right shape.
You’ll also need a large mixing bowl and an electric mixer (you can mix by hand if you don’t have a mixer just be prepared for some arm ache!).
Fancy making a chocolate birthday cake instead?
Then try my new CHOCOLATE BIRTHDAY CAKE RECIPE, it’s really chocolatey, easy to make and perfect for decorating.
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Birthday Cake (All-In-One Vanilla Sponge)
INGREDIENTS
- 225 g self-raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 4 eggs - I usually use medium but large also work well
- 225 g soft margarine
- 225 g caster sugar
- 6 drops vanilla extract
- 2 tsp milk
RECIPE VIDEO
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 160ºC/140ºC fan
- Line your baking tins(s) (I usually use 2 x 20cm round sandwich tins or a 20cm x 30cm rectangular tin, depending on the shape of cake I want to make).
- Sift the self-raising flour (225g) and baking powder (2 tsp) into a large bowl.
- Add the remaining ingredients (4 eggs, 225g soft margarine, 225g caster sugar, 6 drops of vanilla extract and 2 tsp milk) and beat until thoroughly mixed.
- Pour into the tin(s)
- Bake for 30-35 minutes. To check if the cake is cooked insert a skewer and if it comes out clean the cake is ready.
- Leave to cool in the tin(s) for about 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to cool completely – Make sure the cake has cooled completely before decorating.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Free From/Suitable For
- Suitable for Vegetarians
- Nut-Free
- Soy-Free
The ingredients for this recipe are commonly available free from all these allergens. However, please ensure you double-check allergen information for all ingredients.
I’m sharing this with the following recipe challenges… #TastyTuesdays with Honest Mum.
LYNDA JAMIESON says
Beautiful tasting, light and airy sponge recipe. I used 2.5 teaspoons of vanilla.
Janine says
Do you use any jam you want in the middle with the buttercream and do you have to heat jam first thanks
Charlotte Oates says
You can use jam if you want with the buttercream. There’s no need to heat it first.
Jess says
Super yummy and easy to make. So moist fluffy and light. Best sponge recipe out there.
Sana says
Hi Charlottle, can I use vanilla essence instead of vanilla extract? Its because extract contains alcohol, which i dont consume
Thanks
Charlotte Oates says
Yes, it can sometimes have a slightly weaker flavour so you may want to add a little more. You could also use vanilla bean paste or scope the seeds from a vanilla pod.
Alisa De Faria says
Could you use butter instead of margarine?
Charlotte Oates says
Yes, just make sure it’s soft and at room temperature so it mixes in well with the other ingredients.
Leeann Lavery says
Hi what size is this cake?
Charlotte Oates says
It’s a 20cm round cake with 2 layers. If you want to use a different size of tin, you can find a link to my calculator to get the ingredients for other sizes.
Alex says
How far in advance can I make this cake? It’s my daughters birthday in 3 days and I wanted to start making it tomorrow. Will that be ok?
Charlotte Oates says
That’ll be fine. I always start mine 2 days before they’re needed.
Jasmine says
Hey! I’m going to use this recipe to make my brother’s birthday cake. Are those the ingredients for just one layer of the cake or do you split the whole thing between the two tins?
Charlotte Oates says
The ingredients listed are for two layers made in sandwich tins.
Miss m says
This was a pre trial for making a birthday cake for my little one and turned out amazing so am definitely using this recipe again also followed the link for buttercream and that was amazing too ! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Linda says
Made this cake for VE Day celebrations it was lovley
Very light sponge and so easy to make .
Abi says
How many ml is 6 drops of vanilla extract?
Charlotte Oates says
It’s about 1/8 tsp
Louis says
Have you frozen this cake before? Does it taste good cold? I’m trying to make a cake with ice cream in the middle but all the vanilla recipes I’ve tried taste dry and dense even when not frozen/cold.
Charlotte Oates says
I’ve frozen it and defrosted it, but never eaten it as part of an ice cream cake where it’s eaten still frozen. I expect this will be too hard to really work for that type of cake – sorry.
Katy Edgar says
Hi, Im baking the cake and its had 35 minutes but still very liquid in the centre. could it be my oven!? as i normally cook cakes at 180. Thanks
Charlotte Oates says
What temperature did you bake them on? If you normally bake at 180C then it might help to turn up your oven a bit.
Sajida says
Hi there
Been looking for a birthday cake recipe just stumbled on your recipe could you tell me please if I could use your recipe for a birthday cake with the ready rolled icing as my daughter don’t like butter cream and I always make butter cream so am struggling to bake a suitable cake for the hard icing ?
Thanks
Charlotte Oates says
You can cover the cake with just icing, although it may be harder to get the icing completely smooth as the buttercream helps to smooth out any lumps and bumps. You may want to add a layer of something like jam in the middle and coating the cake to add a little extra moistness to the cake and also to help the fondant to stick.
Agnes says
Hi if I wanna add jam and buttercream as a filling will it be ok and if so is there a specific way of doing it? Thank you
Charlotte Oates says
It’ll be fine. I sometimes use both.
Pauline Twort says
How many days before the birthday can a cake be made
Charlotte Oates says
I usually make mine a couple of days before (so I have time to decorate it) and it’s then good to eat for 4-5 days afterwards.
Becky says
Hi. Can I use plain flour instead of self-rising flour? Do I need to increase the amount of baking powder if I use plain flour?
Charlotte Oates says
Yes. I’d add another 1.5 tsp of baking powder.
christine says
if i wanted to make a large rectangular cake, shall i just double up on the quantities? what about the cooking time?
Charlotte Oates says
It depends on the exact size of the tin. If you have a look below the recipe there’s a link to my calculator where you enter you exact tin size and it’ll tell you the quantities you need.
Mandy says
Fantastic and so easy!
My teenage boys can’t get enough of this cake and I really don’t mind baking it over and over again as it’s so easy.
Thank you for sharing -:)
Agnes says
My cake is always so compact and not loose as other cakes,what do I do wrong? Kindly help me
Charlotte Oates says
From your description it sounds as though it didn’t rise properly. The most likely reason for this is that the raising agent in either the self-raising flour or baking powder (or both) didn’t work properly. Were either of them a little old? They can lose their power over time.
Mel says
Hi there, your cakes look great. My daughters birthday is coming up and she loves vanilla sponge but also loves chocolate. If I made a vanilla sponge cake and put a chocolate layer in the middle to hold together rather than butter icing and jam do you think it will taste ok?
Also she only likes icing not butter icing or fondant, will it be ok to cover with just icing?
Charlotte Oates says
What do you mean by just icing. What type?
Sana Afsar says
Is it nessacary to use baking powder as self raising flour already contains baking powder?
Charlotte Oates says
I use additional baking powder as I find gives the cake just the amount of rise I like. However, if you don’t have baking powder, the cake will still work, it’ll just be a little less tall.