Soft sponge cake with quark

Here you will find a super moist and soft sponge cake with quark. It is prepared very quickly and tastes fluffy and incredibly delicious! Be sure to try it!

Soft sponge cake with quark

No children’s birthday party and no cake buffet can do without sponge cake. Whether the classics such as marble cake or fanta cake or unusual ideas – the sponge cake is and remains the cake to take along for all occasions.

On the one hand, the secret lies in the simple recipe, which is both quick and easy to follow and only requires basic foods. On the other hand, a sponge cake with quark is also a white canvas for creative minds who don’t have to set any limits when it comes to decoration.

Basic recipe for sponge cake with quark

You need: 

• 250 grams of sugar
• 5 eggs
• 250 grams of butter
• 250g cottage cheese
• 500g flour
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• 1 packet of baking powder

1. Mix the eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla sugar into a creamy mass. 
2. Add the flour and baking powder and fold in the curd.
3. Grease a mold or line it with baking paper and fill in the batter.
4. Bake at 180 degrees for about 45-60 minutes. Cover the top of the cake with a sheet of parchment paper to prevent the top from browning too much. Use the chopstick test to determine when it’s done.
   

Explanation: In the chopstick test, you pierce the cake with a skewer while it is still baking. The cake is ready when there are no crumbs left on the wooden stick.

1. Let the cake cool in the tin, then turn out and decorate

Any shape is suitable as a baking pan: springform pan, loaf pan, tin or special cake pans.

Variants for sponge cake with quark

The great thing about sponge cake is that basically every ingredient is replaceable and therefore perfectly meets your nutritional requirements or intolerances, but also simply the contents of your fridge.

Here are a few tips on what to replace with what!

Sponge Cake – Vegan Baking

Butter, sugar and quark stand between you and a vegan cake . 

Sponge Cake – Substitute Quark

The quark can be replaced with any milk alternative you like: soy skyr , vegan almond quark, or rice milk, to name a few.

It is replaced at a ratio of 1:1.

Sponge Cake – Substitute butter

Margarine, which is officially considered plant-based, is often used as a substitute for butter. But be careful: skimmed milk is added to some margarines. Therefore, pay attention to the label as a vegan product to be sure.

You are on the safe side with vegetable oils. Many rapeseed oils are also available with an additional butter flavor, but here too you should pay attention to the labeling that this flavor was produced vegan.

Coconut oil, canola oil and sunflower oil are the most common butter representations. Coconut oil and sunflower oil are controversial in terms of their nutrient content and the sustainability of their production.

You should keep your hands off oils that have their own taste, such as olive oil, germ oil, sesame oil or nut oil. In the amount required, this inherent taste comes through very strongly, which usually affects the enjoyment of the cake.

All alternatives are replaced at a ratio of 1:1

Sponge Cake – Substitute eggs

Many things can replace eggs. With sponge cakes, their task is only to bind the dough, because the alternatives to quark and butter already add a lot of airy volume and moisture to the cake. Due to the amount required, care should also be taken to ensure that the substitute product binds well. 

We recommend replacing it with a banana, in the ratio 1 egg = 1/2 banana. The advantage lies in the good binding properties of the banana and the firm consistency. In addition, bananas add a fantastic taste to the dough, which comes through well in the cake.

Apple sauce is tasteless, but makes the cake a little more fluffy. The ratio is 1 egg = 1 tbsp applesauce.

Starch is a good balance for a very runny batter. It binds even better than egg and has no taste of its own. You can use them in the ratio 1 egg = 2 tbsp starch.

Chickpea water, also known as aquafaba, comes very close to the consistency of egg white. However, it does have a flavor of its own, so you should only use it in cakes with added flavor to mask it. In addition, it is only an alternative if you also have a use for the chickpeas.

If you decide to use aquafaba, you should whip it up into an egg white-like mass before processing and fold it into the batter as a last step. 

Use aquafaba in the ratio 1 egg = 2 tbsp aquafaba.

Vegan professionals may also have vegan egg powder in their closet that has been optimized for replacement. The purchase is only worthwhile if you don’t like any other alternative or often bake vegan.

The ratio varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, so pay attention to the information on the package.

With a quantity as large as 5 eggs, you can also combine different alternatives.

It’s all in the mix – soft sponge cake with quark

Since three products are being replaced in large quantities, you should pay attention to the consistency of the dough. It should be no more than a replacement product that is significantly more fluid or significantly more solid than the original product.

In general, it is best to always bake with substitute products that are as close as possible to the consistency of the product being replaced. But you can also do tricks with clever combinations.

Combine for example:

• 250 g vegan quark, 250 ml rapeseed oil and 2 1/2 bananas
• 250 ml soy milk, 250 g vegan margarine and 10 tbsp whipped aquafaba
• 250 g soy yoghurt, 250 ml sunflower oil and 6 tablespoons starch with 1 banana 

Sponge cake with quark – gluten-free baking

For the flour, you can use any gluten-free flour you like. But make sure that it is also clearly labeled as gluten-free, because traces of gluten-containing grains can be found in many flours. 

Wholemeal buckwheat flour is closest to the taste of wheat flour and rye flour differs the most.

With a gluten-free spelled or wholemeal flour you are definitely well advised.

The same applies here: Replace in a 1:1 ratio.

An alternative is to use gluten-free cornstarch. Pure corn starch is always gluten-free, but there are starch mixtures with wheat. However, these must be labeled as containing wheat – so you have to make sure that a pack is not labeled.

The ratio is 3 g flour = 1 g cornstarch.

However, you should never replace the whole amount of flour with cornstarch, but at most a third. Use gluten-free flour for the rest. 

A third option is to replace the flour with gluten-free rolled oats in a 1:1 ratio. You should first grind this with a blender, hand blender or mortar, otherwise the structure will make the dough very grainy.

If you just forgot to buy flour, you can also use gluten-containing oatmeal. 

Sponge cake with quark – lactose-free baking

As with vegan baking, quark and butter can be replaced with vegan alternatives, since vegan products are always lactose-free.

There is also lactose-free quark and lactose-free butter, the consistency of which comes very close to the original.

Sponge cake with quark – bake when the supermarket is already closed

Precisely because sponge cake is so uncomplicated, it can happen that you unfortunately only notice too late that you are still missing ingredients.

I have already told you how to replace butter, quark, flour and eggs.

In addition, you can easily replace sugar, baking powder and vanilla sugar!

Replaced sponge cake sugar

Anything sweet is suitable for sugar. You can also use honey, agave syrup and sugar beet syrup 1:1. 

Pureeing fruit as a sweetener brings its own flavor and lots of moisture that you need to balance. But they also have a lot of healthy nutrients in their luggage.

Substitute baking powder for sponge cake

You can replace baking powder with baking soda in the ratio 2 tsp baking powder = 1 tsp baking soda. However, baking soda needs to react with acid to be fully effective. Citric acid is recommended because it actually always matches the desired taste of the sponge cake.

Baking powder can also be substituted for egg whites or stiffly beaten aquafaba. Be careful not to fold it gently into the batter until the end. It doesn’t let the cake rise as well as baking powder, but it gives the dough an airy volume. 

If the cake is baked exclusively for adults, the use of rum or cognac will also do. While most of the alcohol will dissipate during baking, the flavor is… well, a matter of taste.

The following applies to alcohol: 1 teaspoon of baking powder = 2 tablespoons of high-proof alcohol

Likewise, carbonated water can replace some of the baking soda. Orange or lemonade is particularly popular for sponge cakes. However, they make the dough very runny, which you have to compensate for with a little more flour.

Typical sponge cakes and their recipes

You can basically vary the basic recipe with anything you can think of. This can be fruit, but also colorful sprinkles, marshmallows, nuts, marzipan, …

As always, whatever tastes good is allowed.

However, some classics of the sponge cake have become particularly popular:

marble cake

In addition to the basic recipe you need:

80g baking cocoa

Before pouring the batter into the pan, pour about half into a second bowl. Stir in the cocoa powder there.

Fill the mold alternately with a spoonful of the light and a spoonful of the chocolate-based mixture. If you keep the portions very small, you can create extra marbling by lightly dragging a fork over the dough every few spoonfuls.

For a surprise look, work in layers: first fill the bottom with a thin layer of light-colored clay. Then you spread a thin layer of the dark mass and so on.

You can also use paint instead of chocolate to create the marble look. But you should have some experience with coloring cakes.

fanta cake

In addition to the basic recipe you need:

• 2 cups orange or lemon soda
• some grated orange or lemon zest

The children’s birthday classic. Particularly suitable as a sheet cake, as the pieces are the perfect size for children’s fingers and there is also plenty of space for decoration.

With fondant or marzipan, entire three-dimensional works of art can be created for the happy birthday child on the cake.

cherry cake

In addition to the basic recipe you need:

• 1 glass of sour cherries

Check the cherries for stones and stir them into the batter just before filling. The baking time is usually extended by 5-10 minutes because the cherries bring a lot of moisture with them.

Other fruit that tolerate baking heat can also be used, such as diced apples, blueberries or pear sticks.

chocolate cake

In addition to the basic recipe you need:

• 200g baking cocoa
• 100 g sugar (ie 350 g sugar in total)

Stir the cocoa into the batter along with the flour and baking powder and continue as usual.

Correct common baking mistakes

Especially at the beginning or after buying a new stove, moments of desperation come quickly – the cake is slightly burnt, not cooked through in the middle or too dry.

The 3 most common baking problems that can occur even with sponge cakes and their solutions can be found here:

The batter is too runny

A very runny batter will take a lot longer to bake than usual. The problem, however, is that the top of the cake will be very dark before the inside is fully cooked.

Two things can help here:

• A sheet of parchment paper over the cake protects the surface from burning
• Reduce the temperature and increase the baking time – the exact ratio depends on your oven and your dough. Start with 30 degrees less and 30 minutes longer.

The oven is set incorrectly

Check whether your oven is set to top-bottom heat or convection. Round buttons quickly get caught on our clothes when we turn them and suddenly the oven is set to “Grill” or 220 degrees. 

Especially with top/bottom heat you should make sure that the cake is on the middle shelf. If it’s too high, it burns the surface too quickly, if it’s too low, it hits the ground.

The baking pan contains twice the amount of batter or more

Cake doesn’t bake in a linear fashion: You can’t just bake twice the amount of batter in a springform pan that’s twice the size. Since the mass bakes from the outside inwards, the cake takes much longer with more mass. At the same time, the outside must not burn. 

So it also helps here:

• Place a sheet of parchment paper over the cake
• Reduce the temperature and increase the baking time

Shelf life of sponge cake

Sponge cake survives a few days in the fresh air. To prevent drying out, you can place aluminum foil or cling film on the cut surfaces. 

A sponge cake also survives freezing without any problems. Best cut into portions, it can stay in the freezer for up to 4 months. Place in the fridge for a few hours to thaw, or warm up at room temperature.