Molly Cake Sponge

Made with whipped cream, this vanilla Molly sponge cake is an amazing recipe with a light and fluffy texture. This is the perfect recipe to make your cake layer for any occasion, a birthday cake, a wedding, a baby shower and more.

this recipe

In France, known as Molly Cake, this delicious vanilla sponge cake is originally from Italy, but its popularity has crossed the borders and all French bakers use this wonderful recipe for all their cake creations.

This sponge cake has the particularity to be made of whipped heavy cream which replaces the fat (butter) and it's what gives it this very airy texture, light and tender sponge cake in the mouth.

Also, very valued for its firm consistency, particularly for layer cakes, cakes covered with sugar paste (cake design), sculpted cakes and wedding cake pieces.

It's also a basic vanilla sponge cake recipe that's super easy to make and to flavor to your preference. With my molly cake recipe, you will have 2 cakes to cut out to have 4 layers of sponge cake.

>> See all sponge cake recipes from the blog

Perfect genoise cake

This is definitely the best and perfect sponge cake recipe, and that's why molly cake is so popular in cake design! Its soft and flavorful crumb is so good that you can eat it plain without any filling and nobody can resist it at home.

Made with cake flour, sugar and eggs to which we also add baking powder to achieve that fluffy texture but without adding butter which is instead replaced by whipped cream which gives it that airy yet dense texture without the heaviness of cakes made with butter.

• Easy recipe, simple and foolproof with its ratio easy to remember, with my advice and my recipe in video.
• Ultra soft and light texture unlike other sponge cakes, it does not need to be soaked because the molly cake is not too dry in the mouth.
• Very high vanilla sponge cake perfect for making a layer cake and cake design with sugar paste or sculpted cakes.

You may also like: 10 best cake tools to make beautiful cakes!

Ingredients et substitutions

Here are the ingredients needed and any substitutions to make this vanilla cake sponge at home, scroll down to see the quantities in the recipe card.

• Flour: Use white cake flour preferably which you can replace with all-purpose flour, and measure the quantities well with an electronic scale. To make the gluten-free sponge cake simply replace the flour with a gluten-free flour blend.
• Sugar: Use granulated sugar that you can also replace with brown sugar or cane sugar.
• Eggs: Medium to large eggs at room temperature so that they blend in with the other ingredients for a smooth texture.
• Heavy cream: Full-fat heavy cream with at least 30% of fat and very cold to make whipped cream.
• Yeast: Use baking powder instead of baking soda to make the batter rise and to have a soft and fluffy sponge cake recipe, be careful to measure properly your baking powder.
• Salt and vanilla extract: essential to bring out all the flavors and perfume it.

Option

• Flavor: Add natural or artificial flavors, such as almond extract, lemon juice or other citrus fruits, rose water, lemon zest and orange blossom water.
• Chocolate: Unsweetened cocoa powder to make a chocolate sponge cake version or chocolate chips.
• Fruit: Fresh or frozen fruit such as raspberries or blueberries, or fruit purees to flavor the sponge cake batter.
• Nuts : Chopped nuts to add crunch like almonds, hazelnuts etc. or nut powder like ground almonds, or ground pistachios.
• Spices: ground cinnamon, gingerbread spices etc.

⚠️ Find the quantities and instructions in the recipe card below in this page

How to make the Best Sponge Cake

1 - Whip eggs and sugar

1. Place room-temperature eggs with granulated sugar and vanilla extract.
2. Whip with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on high speed for about 7 to 10 minutes until the mixture doubles in volume and is glossy.

Tip: Keep the mixer running for at least 10 minutes on high speed. The mixture should double or triple in volume.

2 - Add dry ingredients

1. In a large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients, cake flour, baking powder and salt.
2. Sift the dry ingredients through a fine sieve at least twice.
3. Lower the speed of the stand mixer and change the whisk to the paddle attachment, then add the flour mixture all at once while running the mixer until it is incorporated.

Tip: Be careful not to overmix the cake batter after adding the dry ingredients to keep the texture fluffy.

3 - Add Whipped cream

1. Place the cold heavy cream in a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 3 minutes until thick and stiff.
2. Add all the whipped cream to the cake batter and gently fold it in with a flexible spatula, working in a circular motion from the outside to the inside until it is completely incorporated.

4 - Baking

1. Preheat oven to 320°F / 160°C and line 2 round cake pans of 6inch /15 cm only in the bottom with parchment paper.
2. Divide the cake batter in half and distribute it into the two prepared pans.
3. Bake the two cakes together in the oven at half height for about 45-50 minutes until they are puffed and golden on top.
4. Allow the cakes to cool completely in their pans before carefully removing them from the pans and cooling them completely on a cake rack upside down.
5. Cover the cake with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before cutting into layers with a sponge cake leveler.

Tip: Use 2 cake pans of the same diameter rather than one deep pan to bake the molly cake in 2 batches and get the sponge cake perfectly baked. If you have a very deep mold of 10cm high then use a flower nail for homogeneous baking.

Storage and Freezing

At room temperature: This vanilla sponge cake will keep for up to 1 week covered with plastic wrap or in a storage box with a tight-fitting lid.

In the freezer: up to 3 months, covered with plastic wrap or placed in a storage bag or box.

Thawing: let the molly cake sponge slowly come to the right temperature outside the freeze for one night.

More sponge recipes

• Chocolate Molly Cake
• Chocolate genoise
• Sponge cake
• Chiffon Cake
• Angel Cake
• White cake
• Genoise sponge
• Buttermilk chocolate cake

Frequently Asked Questions

Frosting to fill my cake

Here are some ideas for frostings and fillings that will be perfect to go with this sponge cake recipe and make it delicious.

• Mascarpone frosting
• Chocolate mascarpone frosting
• Kinder ganache
• A fruit curd, raspberries, orange, lemon…
• Chocolate ganache, whipped ganache, white chocolate ganache, milk chocolate ganache.
• Chocolate ganache frosting
• Vanilla buttercream
• Swiss meringue Buttercream
• Coconut Frosting

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