Guyanese Sponge Cake
I’ve been receiving request for Guyanese sponge cake and decided to do a test run. Guyanese sponge cake is a Christmas staple along with black cake and ginger beer. I’ve made this in the past but it’s been so long it was like new to me again. I remembered my mom telling me a pound of sugar, a pound of butter and a pound of flour. Using that I did a little research and I came up with this recipe. Its basically a classic sponge cake recipe. I know I didn’t actually used a pound of flour or butter or sugar, I halved the recipe because quite frankly that much cake is too much for my husband and myself to eat. I enjoyed this Guyana sponge cake and so did he. It was moist and flavorful and just as good as I remembered.
Get the Recipe GUYANESE SPONGE CAKE
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp grated orange zest.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream butter and sugar for 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, making sure they are well incorporated before you add another egg.
- Mix in vanilla extract and orange zest. Combine flour and baking powder then mix. Slowly add flour and mix until well combined.
- Pour into a greased 9 inch cake pan that's been line with parchment paper and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Cake should spring back when gently touched. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.
- Once the cake is out of the pan, remove the parchment paper and discard. Allow cake to cool on a rack before serving.
- *Optional. To achieve this color combination I colored 1 cup of batter red and one cup green. I alternately dropped the red, green and uncolored batter into the cake pan. I then swirled the batters together with a knife.
Video
Looks so light and airy – almost spring-like. Very delectable.
Oh I loveee guyana sponge cake! I had it once at my friend’s house and it was so good
looks so pretty!
Oh Gosh….How I miss my gt! Christmas time I use to look forward to this sponge cake. And granny used to make it with the coloring like you do. So cute!
Thanks for another great recipe. I’m glad yours calls for less eggs. Some recipes were calling for a dozen!!! Anyway, two questions… how much milk would you put in–this is for moisture I take it? What about oil? Also how did you fold in the colour? Did you drip in directly to the pan and swirl with a knife or split the batter into three, colour two parts and then layer in the pan??
Hi..I can’t give you an accurate amount of milk to add because when I do I will have to experiment to see what is the appropiate amount. As for the color, I colored 1 cup of batter red, and one cup green. I dropped the three into the pan and swirled with a knife.
This cakes looks so good. I am going to make it for christmas.
Hi Jehan,
Thanks for the quick response! I tried both this sponge cake and the salara. The milk addition was helpful, but I may have added too much milk. I used a 1/2 cup (1/4 cup might be better next time) and put a bit of the butter from the recipe in the milk and warmed it first before mixing it after the flour. The salara-perfect recipe… came out well. My dad suggested an alternative to the food colouring… the name has the term “rose” in it. Anyway, thanks for the recipes!
Happy Holidays!
Happy holidays to you too..I made Pepperpot for the first time and it was superb!!
+-thanks for your help in making the sponge cake.I tried before but failed.You are a great help thanks again
what about some gt.coconut bun.
That’s coming soon..stay tuned.
This cake looks so great!! I am now trying my utmost best to make this cake with the exact recipe. Do i need to put flour into the pan, before adding the batter?
Yes the pan needs to be floured. Oops…Guess I left out that step..I will go and revise the recipe.
i really love Cakes and i am always looking for some new cake recipes on the internet.:”;
Cake recipes are the specialty of my best friend, my favorite ones are those exotic fruit cakes’:*
i love to eat cakes and bake them too that is why i am always on the lookout for cake recipes'”.
I make my sponge cake with egg white only and it’s perfect. Your can also try using some 7up instead of milk for a wonderful 7upo cake
i try to my my first cake Christmas eve it was a little dry i dont know if i needed to add more milk or if i need to add water or oil im new to the baking and cooking seen so i need some more tips anyways i left guyana at the age of 6 and i didnt get the chance to learn to cook any of these fabulous food that i enjoy so much and im so grateful that i found this site my husband is an all out american and her would love for me to share my culture food with him and his family so thank you for sharing
Thanks for this recepe
I’ve made it and so proud of myslf. This is my first cake in whole life and it has been well done. Thanks to you again
We not use cup measurement sin the UK, what is the equivlant ?
The equivalent is 240 ml.
loving it:) brought back soooooo much memories ..
gonna try your recipe today for Shellon’s bday cake 🙂
I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I do not know who you are but certainly you’re going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!
cake looks good cannot wait to try it also i would love to have recipe for fruit cake guyana fruit cake
Hi Nelly, I have posted a Fruit Cake recipe and will post a black cake recipe soon.
thank you!
First off, I have to say that I am so glad that I stumbled onto this site. Although I am not Guyanese, I love the culture, music (the great, late Sundar Popo) and food.
The first Guyanese dish I ever made was oil roti, and let me just say it took many many tries to get it right.
Now back to the sponge cake, this was the first time making this cake and first time using a mixer, growing up as a kid, I used to bake cake from the box and but I mixed it with a wooden spoon because we didn’t have a mixer. I was quite surprised and proud of myself that the cake came out quite good.
Was the red and green food coloring added to represent the Guyana flag?
Hi Dada, I’m not aware of if the food coloring was added to represent the flag.
i am sooooooo glad i found this site ( i’ve been using it about a year or so now). you just make me want to get up and cook something. i made sorrel for the first time (thanks) and it was the ‘yummmm’. lol. i’m about to try this fruit cake.set my fruits two weeks ago and i’m ready.
Hello Jehan! I tried this sponge cake and it came out so delish! I did add a few drops of lemon extract though cause I love lemon flavored cake, the only thing is 35 mins was too much for my oven, It was a tad bit dry, next time I’ll do 32-33 mins and that might make it more moist, or I have read that you can add some sour cream for moistness. I will try to colored version next time though. Do I need to buy food coloring for that? xo
Anjali you would need to buy food coloring. It can be found in the baking aisle at the supermarket.
Thanks for your quick response Jehan! You are so awesome 🙂
Hi there, will be attempting this today. I have a loaf pan, how can I convert measurements to suit the pan size?
Thanks a million
Hi Adele, this will fit into a loaf pan just fine.
Hi there,
could you please tell me how may sticks of butter is equivlant to a cup. I am not a baker, but a little bit concerned about the amount of baking powder. if that enough. I saw some of the other writers asking about milk but I don’t see milk in recipe.
Hi Rose, 2 sticks of butter is equivalent to 1 cup. This recipe has no milk, others are asking if they were to add milk how much would they add but this recipe is fantastic without milk. I made it a second time as it and it turned out great! I hope I’ve answered all of your questions.
This cake looks good for my daughter bake sale. Thanks jeha for recipe
It is nice to know that I could get such an amazing recipe for a sponge cake.So what is the diffrence between a sponge cake and a pound cake?so thank you for the recipe.I will try to bake it on my own.Have a good day and God bless.
Hi Michael, a pound cake is more dense and while a sponge is lighter. Also traditionally a pound cake is made with 1 pound each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs. Please let me know how your cake comes out.
Just finish baking my sponge cake using your recipe however I used only 4 eggs and I also added some lemon and orange zest to it came out wonderful and tasty, also I used approx 11/4 cups of flour instead of 1 1/2 cups so its much lighter and fluffier.
Thanks for a great recipe.
your cake looks lovely fluffy and light. I tried it twice and both times it was heavy and not fluffy.Can you maybe tell me what i am doing wrong? thanks
Dionne, I use a stand up mixer on high and whip it well after the addition of each egg. The mixer also makes the butter very fluffy. I hope these tips help.
Jehan, the sponge cake recipe needs about 1/4 tsp of salt. The salt blends with the sugar for a better taste.
Hi Donna, I didn’t add salt because the cake was made with salted butter instead of unsalted. Typically Guyana sponge cake is made with unsalted butter so the addition of salt is necessary.
Made this cake tonight, OMG to dye for.I did add 3/4 cup of milk and I beat the egg white then add at the end, makes for a very light, fluffy cake.
I tried this recipe and the cake was really dry. I don’t know what happened or did wrong
Aneesha, sorry to hear that, it shouldn’t be. Make sure the cake is cooked at the correct temperature and do not overbake.
Hi Jehan
I made this sponge cake for my parents wedding anniversary it was a hit. Very yummy cake. Great recipe.
Hi JehanP,
I made this and it was so scrumptious!!! I also added maraschino cherries that I halved and mixed them with cornstarch so they don’t sink to the bottom of the pan. Keep up the good works!!
Jehan,
THANK YOU for this recipe! I made it yesterday and it came out perfect! Sorry, well not really, to say I had a big ole slice of cake with a glass of my homemade coquito for dinner last evening and I was in heaven.
I follow you on IG and FB and I’m so proud to be watching your journey!
From one Guyanese Queen to another, keep up the great work!
I’m trying to surprise my fiancee , who’s from Guyana, with this cake. Could you give me the whole recipe? I noticed in the comments there’s some steps and ingredients missing, like milk?
This is the recipe as written. Nothing is missing.
Hi jehan thanks for the recipe but I’m a little off because i don’t understand the cup measurements too much because here in Guyana we get everything in pound but to my knowledge is this equal to a half pound cake and if I’m doing a whole pound do just double up thanks
Hi Loraine, yes you would have to double it.
Hi the milk..is it liquid milk or powder milk?
Lisa the milk is liquid.
Hi Jehan
What type of flour are you using, all purpose or self rising?
Fatima I’m using all purpose flour.
I made cake from scratch for the first time today. It came out amazing. Light and fluffy. I added a 1/4 cup of milk as the others suggested and it made the cake super moist. My cake was perfectly baked in 30 mins. I can’t wait to make this for Christmas. Thanks soo much Jehan.
Hi Farina, did you add the milk in addition to Jehan’s full recipe?
Yes Nareesa.
Thank you so much for this recipe. I am going to bake it this weekend and will let you know how it turned out. You didn’t mention milk but I see the audience mentioned it. I’ll use the ingredients as you listed it and we’ll see.
Thank you!
Shonnell you can do it with our without the milk.
Made this today, 8/4/2023, and aside from buttering and flouring, two, 8″ x 3″ pans (no parchment paper), it was a perfect recipe.
Why is the baking powder in the recipe list but not the instructions???? Almost forgot to add it.
Sorry about that, it’s been updated.