Sponge Cake with Mahaleb

Sponge cake is very very easy to make. If you bake it in a flat cake form you can use it in making special cream cakes or if you use other forms, you can eat it as it is, even serve your guests.

 Mahaleb is a kind of spice which gives a very nice aroma to the cake. If you can find it, try this cake with mahaleb, you will be more than pleased with the results.

The last time I baked it, I added 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds. Poppy seeds also go very well in this type of cake so I recommend it too.

Ingredients:

·         2 glasses of wheat flour(200 gr.)

·         1 glass of milk(200 ml.)

·         ½ glass of vegetable oil(200 ml.)

·         1 ½ glasses of sugar(300gr.)

·         3 eggs

·         2 packages of baking powder

·         2 teaspoons of mahaleb

·         ½ tablespoon of butter to grease the cake form

How to prepare:

·         Preheat the oven for 10 minutes at 180C

·         Mix sugar and eggs very well. Make sure that these two ingredients mixed into eachother thoroughly.

·         Add oil and milk, mix again.

·         Add flour, baking powder and mahaleb, mix again but do not mix much. If possible, add the flour and baking powder by the help of a sifter. This is a better way to ensure that your cake rises well.

·         Grease the cake form with he butter. Also sprinkle some flour on the cake form, all over. This is a more guaranteed way that your cake does not stick on the cake form.

·         Put the mixture in the cake form

·         Put the cakeform in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Do not open the oven until the time is over or your cake will not rise as much as expected.

Some ovens have different programs and I bake cakes at the baking program of my oven. Your oven might be totally different so at the first time you are baking this cake, watch it from time to time to make sure that it is not under or over baked.

One simple method to understand if a cake is well baked is to stick a toothpick in it. If the toothpick comes out clean, this means that the cake is in good shape. If not, then you need to bake it a few minutes more.

You can serve this cake by sprinkling some castor sugar all over it. It looks really nice, like your mom’s cakes and it smells very much like home.

Enjoy!