Taiwan Old fashion sponge cake

Revisiting this old fashion sponge cake that was so popular many years back. I was baking this almost every other week until I got bored and forgotten about it! Flipping through my phone, I found the old recipe and decided to try baking it again.

Taiwan old fashion sponge cake

• Ingredient A:
• 50g Corn oil

• 6 Egg yolks (from large eggs about 65g with shell)
• 90g Cake flour

• 90ml Fresh milk

• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Ingredient B:
• 6 Egg white
• 90g Castor sugar

• 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar OR 1/2 lemon juice
• Optional: 4 pieces cheese slices or some grated cheese for topping

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 170C, second lowest rack. Line the bottom of a 7” square pan. Do not grease the sides.

• In a large mixing bowl, hand whisk egg yolks, oil and milk until pale and well combined then sift in the flour and mix until smooth. Cover n Set aside.
• In another clean dry bowl (make sure it’s oil free too!) use an electric whisk (or stand mixer if you have one) whisk the egg white until foamy before adding cream of tartar/lemon juice. Continue whisking until thick foams before slowly adding sugar and continue whisking until firm peaks form.
• Fold meringue into egg yolks batter gently, 1/3 portion at a time until you get a nice creamy batter that can be poured into your cake pan easily. You can use a hand whisk to fold in the meringue and at the end, switch to a spatula to scrap the bottom of the batter and fold up gently to ensure even mixing of the meringue into yolk batter.
• Pour half the cake batter into the pan, then place the cheese slices gently on top; lay the cheddar slices on top. Top up with remaining half batter and lastly add shredded cheddar cheese on the top. if using. Bake in a water bath for 20 minutes at 170C before reducing the temperature to 150C and continue to bake for another hour or until cake is cooked. Please take note that temperature and timing is only indicative here.
• De-pan immediately and allow to cook before slicing.