The quest to the perfect sponge cake was what started my baking journey. My first tang mian sponge recipe was delightful. It had a moist, light cottony texture that simply melted in the mouth. When paired simply with cream and fruits, it was an absolute dream. The buttery taste gave it a touch of decadence, but with the rising price of butter, I knew I wanted to develop a version 2.0 that uses oil instead of butter.
Tang 燙: scald. Mian 面: flour.
The tang mian (cooked dough) method is the key to a successful sponge cake that lasts for days. This method coats the flour with fat before adding anything else. By coating the flour with fats, it inhibits the formation of gluten. This means a beautifully fluffy bite that melts in your mouth.
The science:
Gluten won’t start to form until the flour comes in contact with liquid (like milk and egg whites). Coating the flour with butter or oil creates a barrier which slows down the formation of gluten. This is fantastic news because long strands of gluten in cakes mean tough and dense mouthfuls of cake. No thankful, this induces flashbacks of my early baking days when watching the beaters beat the crap out of the cake batter seemed therapeutic.
When mixing, you can see that the dough becomes gelatinised and shiny. Gelatinised dough is also able to absorb much more liquid, resulting in a much more moist cake than any traditional chiffon cake.
Give the tang mian method a go! It is easy and will soon become your go-to base for all your fluffy sponge cakes. My favourite part is that I can make this cake well in advance and it’ll still be moist even after 5 days. If you haven’t already, read my 3 secrets to perfecting the soft and pillowy sponge. You’ll be guaranteed to make the most foolproof sponge cake.
Classic tang mian sponge cake
Ingredients
Egg yolk mixture
- 65 g oil
- 200 g milk
- 55 g sugar
- 6 egg yolks
- 180 g cake flour
- 1 pinch salt
Egg white mixture
- ½ tsp cream of tartar
- 130 g sugar
- 6 egg whites
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a small saucepan using low-med heat. Sift in the cake flour and mix
- Add the milk, sugar and mix. Take the saucepan off the heat
- Add the egg yolks in one at a time, whisking between each one
- Add a pinch of salt
- In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy and add the cream of tartar. Add the sugar in batches and whisk until the egg whites reach stiff peaks
- Preheat the oven to 150ºC and prepare your hot water bath
- Add one third of the egg white to the yolk batter and mix well. Using a spatula, fold the remaining egg white in two batches. Do so gently and thoroughly so no streaks of egg white remain
- Pour the batter into the lined 8” cake pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Tap the pan against the tabletop to get rid of any large air bubbles
- Put the cake pan into the hot water bath, ensuring that the water height reaches at least a third of the cake pan
- Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour 20min or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean
- Remove from the oven and tap the pan against the tabletop a few times to prevent shrinkage. Transfer to cool on a wire rack pan for 10min before unmoulding
