One of the very basic cakes, known to most kitchens and tea times; made of the very basic ingredients of flour, sugar, butter and eggs, mostly made as the non-yeasted cakes but leavened with beaten eggs are the “sponge cakes”.
With the roots tracing back to Spain of the early Renaissance period; the forerunner of sponge cake was initially believed to be have made more as a biscuit, flat and thin. The brainchild recipe was believed to be by the Italian pastry chef Giovan Battista Cabona (called Giobatta), at the court of Spain with his lord, the Genoese marquis Domenico Pallavicini, approximately around the middle of the 16th century. In fact the earliest original and attested sponge cake recipe was seen in English poet, Gervase Markham’s “The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615).” The thin crisp cookie like cake became it’s present form when bakers started using beaten eggs as the rising agent (mid 18th century). With baking powder (Victorian period, Alfred Bird, 1843), sponge cakes became higher and lighter.
The British sponge cake is produced using the batter method, with the layered Victorian sponge cake and the Madeira cake being popular in the high tea menu; these cakes made using the batter method are known as butter or pound cakes in US. The typical Victoria sponge filling consists of strawberry jam and whipped double cream sandwiched between two sponge cakes with the top of the cake layered with a dusting of icing sugar.
While sponge cakes are made using the batter method; cakes made using the trapped are known as “foam cakes”. Cakes made based on the technique of using trapped air to life the cake, partially or wholly, existed in most European patisseries. Like the Anglo-Jewish “plava”, pan di Spagna (Italy), génoise (Italian), pão-de-ló (Portugese) to mention a basic few.
The derivatives of the basic sponge cake idea include the American chiffon cake, the Mawa cake (Indianized British sponge cake from Mumbai) and the Latin American tres leches cake. The latter is a sponge cake soaked in three kinds of milk: evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream. From the simple sponge cake, before it has cooled, the creation of rolled cakes as in the Swiss rolls, trifles, Madeleine and ladyfingers are possible. Little wonder then, this basic cake has been a part of the kitchens over the centuries. With the National Sponge Cake (August 23rd) being recognized by foodimentarians today; experimenting and indulging in the basic cakes of the childhood days would make way for a change fr the usual.
“Kai slices the cake, his version of the banana cake I have always talked about. He has made a vanilla sponge cake, soaked in vanilla simple syrup, and layered with sliced fresh bananas and custard. There is a central layer of dark chocolate ganache with bits of crispy pecans and toffee, and the whole thing is covered in chocolate buttercream, with extravagant curls of chocolate and chocolate-dipped banana slices piled in the middle. I accept a thin slice, savoring the flavors, both of the cake, and of simple joy.” Stacey Ballis (Good Enough to Eat)
Sugar And Spice... Among Other Things 
