Hi!!
I bake a genoise sponge which I’ve altered to really like. However I’m having trouble getting the sponge to ‘be bigger’ and I’m not sure how to achieve that.
Recipe
225g sugar/self raising flour/butter
4 eggs
Milk
Flavour
Bake for 25mins on 160
Split into 2 shallow pans but it doesn’t even rise out of the edge!
I tried to same mixture but putting it all in one bigger pan and increasing the bake time but it didn’t seem to have much effect.
I am basically looking to achieve a larger sponge for layers and stacking. Thank you
If the cake is rising and setting properly, but not filling the pan, it just means you don’t have enough batter in the pan. You need to scale the recipe to the pan using baker’s percentages.
Add up the total weight of you ingredients.
Divide that number by two.
That is the amount of batter you are using per cake.
Since total weight of batter per cake is not enough to give you the size cake you want, you need to increase the amout of total batter per cake.
If the cake is 3/4 the height desired, then increase the batter by about 15%. If that proves to be too little/too much adjust in 5% increments.
First you need to calculate your baker’s percentages. Since you didn’t list the weight of all your ingredients, I cannot calaculate it.
To calculate the baker’s percentages, divide the weight of each ingredient into the weight of the flour.
Flour 225 g
Butter 225 g
Eggs ?
Milk ?
Extract ?
Salt?
Flour is always 100%
weight butter 225 ÷ flour 225 g = 1 (same as 100%)
weight of eggs ÷ 225 = ?
weight of milk ÷ 225 = ?
weight of extract ÷ 225 and = ?
weight of salt ÷ 225 = ?
Add up the total percentages. That is the total baker’s percentages.
You will need to use the baker’s percentages to calculate how much of each ingredient to use to increase the amount of batter. You use the baker’s percentages to ensure the ratio of each ingredient to the weight of the flour stays consistent.
How to use the baker’s percentages
Since I don’t know the baker’s percentages, I will just make up some numbers
butter 225 ÷ flour 225 g = 1 (same as 100%)
weight of eggs 220 g ÷ 225 = .97 (same as 97%)
weight of milk 250 mL ÷ 225 = 1.11 (same as 111%)
weight of extract 10 ÷ 225 and = 0.04 (same as 4%)
weight of salt ÷ 225 = 0.013 (same as 1.3%)
Add up the percentages of each ingredient for total baker’s percentages
100 Flour
100 Butter
97 eggs
111 milk
4 extract
1.3 salt
413.3 Total baker’s percentages
Now add up the total weight of the batter
225 g flour
225 g butter
220 g eggs
250 g milk
10 g extract
3 g salt
933 g Total weight of batter for 2 cakes
Example, you want to bake 2 8” cakes. The original recipe total weight is 933 g. Divided by 2, each cake is 466.5 g per cake.
Say you want to increase that by 15% to make a taller cake.
466.5 g cake batter x .15 = 69.97. Round that up to 70 g additional batter
You need to increase the batter amount
per cake by 70 g.
466.5 + 70 = 536.5 g. Just round down to 536 grams per cake.
The new amount of batter per cake is 536 g
Step 1: calculate the amount of batter you need
you want 2 8” cakes at 536 g batter each; multiply number of cakes needed by the amount of batter per cake
2 cakes x 536 = 1072 g total batter needed
Total batter needed is 1072 g
Step 2: calculate 1% of the baker’s percentage for each ingredient
- Divide the total weight of the batter you NEED (1072 g) by the Total Baker’s Percentage (413.3)
1072 ÷ 413.3 = 2.5937 just round down to 2.59. Since it was rounded down, it will give you just under the 1072 g of batter
Multiply baker’s percentages of each ingredient by the multiplier 2.59.
100% flour x 2.59 = 259 g flour
100% butter x 2.59 = 259 g butter
97% eggs x 2.59 = 251.23 g eggs
111% g milk x 2.59 = 287.49 mL milk
4% extract x 2.59 = 10.36 extract
1.3% g salt x 2.59 = 3.36 g salt
New totals:
259 g flour
259 g butter
251.23 g eggs
287.49 mL milk
10.36 extract
3.36 g salt
—————————
1070.44 total weight of batter
each cake will be 535 g of batter verses the original recipe that used 466.5 g batter per cake.
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Just for clarification, genoise is traditionally four ingredients.
General Ratios:
- Egg 150% - 200%
- Sugar 100% - 115%
- Flour/starch 100%
- Fat 20% - 40% clarified butter
You can add some salt and flavoring (extract, vanilla bean, etc.) There’s a to mixing methods for genoise: hot process and cold process genoise.
Also If you are in the UK, your eggs are not 50 g each. UK and European Union rate egg size on a different scale from US and Canada.
By Code of Federal Regulation (CFR), eggs must meet a MINIMUM size to be included in a grade side. Most large eggs in the US will yield (out of shell) about 50 g. UK/European eggs per size compared to US/Canada yield more since they are larger.
| United States | | |
| Size | Minimum mass per egg | US weight |
| Jumbo | 70.9 g | 2.5 oz |
| Extra-Large (XL) | 63.8 g | 2.25 oz. |
| Large (L) | 56.7 g | 2 oz. |
| Medium (M) | 49.6 g | 1.75 oz. |
| Small (S) | 42.5 g | 1.5 oz. |
| Peewee | 35.4 g | 1.25 oz. |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| Canada | | |
| Size | Minimum mass per egg | |
| Jumbo | 70 g | |
| Extra Large | 63 g | |
| Large | 56 g | |
| Medium | 49 g | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| Europe | | |
| Size | Minimum mass per egg | |
| Extra large (XL) | 73 g | |
| Large (L) | 63 g | |
| Medium (M) | 53 g | |
| Small (S) | Less than 53 g | |
