I used a basic recipe from Delia Smith sponge to create a coconut oil version, using the typical coconut oil conversion of 3/4 the weight of the butter stated in the recipe. I also added the rind of 2 lemons, and filled with lemon curd and a marscapone and fromage frais filling. My inspiration came from the June 2009 edition of delicious. magazine.
I made this for my fiancee’s 30th birthday, and it went down really well, the lemon curd recipe is to follow. Makes enough for 2 9″ sandwich tins.
- 175g of self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 3 large eggs
- 130g of coconut oil, soft
- 150g of caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
- 2 lemon rinds, optional, if you don’t want a lemon sponge leave them out.
- Room temperature water
METHOD
- Preheat the oven to 170oC, and take the eggs out of the fridge, leave till they reach room temperature.
- Add the flour and the baking powder to a sieve, sieve the contents into a large mixing bowl, trying to encorporate as much air as possible into the flour.
- For the next step you will need soft coconut oil. Softening coconut oil can be a bit of a problem in a colder climate (like Scotland) as you don’t want to microwave it which will most likely melt some of the oil and leave the rest still hard. In the end I left my coconut oil on top of the oven where it would feel the heat.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl. Stir in the ingredients (I find if you don’t do this before using an electric whisk your kitchen becomes coated with a light dusting of flour. Mix with an electric whisk for 1 minute till entirely combined.
- At this point I felt my sponge was a little dry so I added 2 tablespoons of water, although add only if you think it necessary. I think mine needed the water as my eggs were a little smaller. Mix in the water.
- Split the mixture between the two sandwich tins, and put in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Once cooked they should have a golden colour and the sponge should spring back to the touch.
I was really pleased how my sponge cake turned out, it’s really simple to make and you only need one bowl, so less cleaning up!