Mrs Williams Sponge Cake

I don't know Mrs Williams, I'm sure if I ask enough family members I could find out who she was — a friend, neighbour, maybe a fellow churchgoer of my great-grandma? Actually, I'm pretty sure she wasn't a fellow churchgoer as my family's history of churchgoing is pretty sketchy at best. Who knows. Anyway, here she is, immortalised forever and ever in these photos of fruity indulgence and creaminess. 

This recipe has such a small amount of flour, it felt like I was making a meringue, and it smelled so eggy I wasn't sure it would taste any good. I thought it was going to be a disaster when I took the two cakes tins out of the oven, and saw how rubbery the cakes were, like two really large inflated pancakes. They even deflated a little upon cooling. So with a bit of cream and some fruit to messily dress the cake, I set about photographing it, and decided I needed to taste it just to see what it was like. I ended up having two pieces, and then had some friends over to have a piece, then helped myself to a third.  

Mrs Williams Sponge Cake

4 eggs, separated

¾ cup sugar

½ cup cornflour

2 tsp. plain flour

1 tsp. cream of tartar

½ tsp. bicarbonate of soda

Cream and fruit for decorating, if desired

Preheat oven to 160°C

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add the sugar, then beat again until egg whites become glossy.

Fold in the lightly beaten egg yolks, then sift the cornflour, flour, cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda into the mixture.

Pour into greased round cake tin (or 2 shallow cake tins) and bake for 15 minutes.

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For those of you who are not in Australia, please find here a selection of Measurement & Temperature Conversion Charts which should help with the accuracy of your own cooking.