Chocolate Italian Sponge Cake
This chocolate Italian sponge cake is quite fast and easy to prepare, once you understand exactly what you have to do.
Italian sponge cake (Pan di Spagna) is used in desserts like cassata, zuppa inglese and tiramisù. It can be soaked with your favorite mixture and layered with cream fillings or jam, covered with fondant, or just eaten on its own sprinkled with icing sugar.
You only need 4 ingredients: eggs, granulated sugar, cake flour and unsweetened cocoa powder. It’s made without butter, oil and baking powder; it relies solely on well-beaten eggs for its leavening.
My tips to get a perfect chocolate Italian sponge cake:
- You need extra large eggs (each egg should weight approximately 70 grams/2.46 ounces) at room temperature. Take them out from the fridge 20 minutes before you need them, or soak them for a few minutes in a bowl of warm water.
- Beat the eggs and sugar for at least 15 minutes, until the mixture becomes clear, triples in volume, and reaches the ribbon stage.
- Use cake flour, if it’s not available in the store, you can make it at home (check this tutorial by Joy the Baker).
- Sift the flour and cocoa powder on top of the egg mixture, a little at a time, and fold it gently with a wooden spoon. Don’t pour it all at once or it will sink to the bottom of the bowl.
- Don’t open the oven while the cake is cooking, or the cake will deflate.
- When the cake is ready, turn off the oven and leave it inside for another ten minutes (put a wooden spoon in the oven door to keep it slightly open).
You can prepare the chocolate Italian sponge cake up to 3 days ahead, wrap it in cling film. and keep it in the fridge. You can also wrap it in cling film and freeze it for up to a month. To defrost it, take it out from the freezer the night before and thaw it unwrapped at room temperature.
This recipe is for a 18-20 cm / 7-8 inches baking pan. If you are using a larger pan, use the follow ratios:
- 15 cm / 6 inches pan: 3 eggs, 90 grams granulated sugar, 75 cake flour, 15 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
- 22 cm /9 inches pan : 5 eggs, 150 grams granulated sugar, 120 grams cake flour, 30 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
- 24 cm / 10 inches: 6 eggs, 180 grams granulated sugar, 145 cake flour, 35 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
- 26 cm / 11 inches: 7 eggs, 210 grams granulated sugar, 170 grams cake flour, 40 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
If you try this recipe let me know what you think! Leave a comment and don’t forget to take a picture and share it on my Facebook page or tag it #aseasyasapplepie on Instagram!
How To Make It: Chocolate Italian Sponge Cake
Ingredients
- ½ cup+1½ tablespoon (120 g) granulated sugar
- 4 extra large eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons (100 g) cake flour* sifted
- 3 tablespoons (20 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
- Take the eggs out from the fridge ahead of time or soak them for a few minutes in a bowl of warm water.
- Preheat the oven to 338°F (170°C).
- Butter and flour a 8 inch (20 cm) pan, or spray it with baking spray.
- Put the eggs and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Beat the eggs until very fluffy and pale yellow (about 15 minutes on medium/high speed). To test that it has been beaten enough, let some of the mixture fall into the bowl; if it remains “sitting” on top, that means that it’s ready.
- Sift the flour and cocoa powder on top of the egg mixture, a little at a time, and fold it gently with a wooden spoon, from bottom to top.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Don’t smooth the top or bang the pan on the counter; leave it as it is!
- Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (Don’t open the oven for the first 20 minutes!)
- Turn off the oven but leave the chocolate Italian sponge cake inside for at least 10 minutes so it can cool down slowly (put a wooden spoon in the oven door to keep it slightly open). After that, remove it from the oven, let it cool for 10 more minutes, loosen around the edges with a knife, and then flip the cake on a wire rack upside down (without the pan) to cool completely.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Do you prefer a vanilla or lemon Italian sponge cake?
Elena, I’ll be more careful next time. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thank you very much. Pete
Hi Elena, This is my first attempt at making a cake, ever. My cake tastes wonderful, but it did not rise very much (1 3/4″); It is very dense. I used a 8 x 4 pan, weighed all the ingredients, beat the batter for 15 minutes, (it appeared to me as you described), and baked it for 40 minutes without opening the oven door. My toothpick came out clean when I tested it. I plan to try it again next week. It was over 80 degrees Fahrenheit in my kitchen today. Also, my extra large eggs only weigh 60 grams each. Any idea what I may have done wrong? Thank you in advance for your wonderful recipe and your help.
Hi Pete! How many eggs did you use?
Ellena, I used four extra large eggs, but each one was only 60 grams. My eggs were at room temperature. Also, I used cake flour, as you recommended. Should I add part of another egg to bring the total to 280 grams for an 8 x 4 pan? I did clean the bowl and whisk with vinegar (and dried) to make sure there was no fat in there. Thank you for your quick response.
Maybe you deflated the eggs when you incorporated the flour.
Please let me know if you try again.
Hi
I dont have cake flour just regular flour. Should i add baking powder? If so, how much?
Hi Maria Teresa! You can use regular flour (no baking powder)
Hello
Iloke it to much iwand to do it for my son BR.
I have pan 25cm. What ingreediens come with it plz?
Hi Yara!
For a 25 cm pan you will need: 6 extra large eggs, 180 grams (3/4 cup + 2 1/2 tablespoons) granulated sugar, 145 flour(1 1/4 cup minus 1/2 tablespoon), 35 grams (1/3 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder.
Baking time should be the same as the recipe. Let me know how it goes :)
Hi Elena,
Very impressive cake! :) How come the top is so very flat? I just made a sponge cake (following a recipe that calls for eggs, buttermilk, baking powder, regular flour, sugar and chocolate powder) and the result was absolutely nothing like yours.
I understand that the height of a sponge depends on how well the eggs and sugar are beaten, but what causes most other sponges to develop a domed top?
Also, would I ruin this recipe by adding more chocolate powder? We really like dark chocolate cakes.
Many thanks,
Emma
Hi Emma!
If you want to increase the amount of chocolate powder, decrease the flour.
The top is very flat because you flip the cake on a wired rack upside down (so the domed top becomes the bottom of the cake) :)
Thank you for recipe. Easy to make. Perfect texture and flavour. Also great idea for info in diffrent sizes of cake
I am glad you liked this recipe, Barbara! Thank you for your feedback. :)
Hi Elena! I am happy I found this recipe, this was my first experiment of a sponge with no butter! It turned out great! I only needed one thin layer for my cake so I used the 3-eggs proportion recipe in a 9 inch pan. Like I said, I was generally happy with the result – the only thing, I found it a bit too dry and less “fluffy, soft’ than I expected… Was that because I did not adjust the cooking time? I baked exactly 40 mins at 340F… anything else I might have done wrong? Or is it a normal result when one does not use butter? Should I have moisted it with some syrup?
Hi Elina! This cake is supposed to be a bit dry, it’s better to soak it with a flavored simple syrup.
Hello! I found your recipe and it looks absolutely delicious. I do have a question my oven does not go to 338 degrees F the closest I can get my oven to that tempurture it 340 degrees will I need to adjust the cooking time? I am really looking forward to making this and I want it to come out looking as perfect as yours does.
Hi Anna! 340 degrees F is perfect, you don’t have to make any adjustments. Let me know how it goes and if you have any questions I am happy to help (you can leave a comment or send me an email) :)
Hi…you ve explained the techniques so beautifully,am happy I could finally make this awesome cake …am your newest follower …I think this is the best writeup on this cake I have came across ever even better than any video tutorial ..thank you very much !!! Appreciate it so much ..good day!
Hi Sachi, welcome to the blog!! Thank you so much for your kind words :)
I’m a new baker from Kenya and I love your recipes!!!It’s my go to sponge cake recipe and it’s easy to make.good work!!
Hi Eva! I am so glad you love my recipes :) Thank you for your feedback.
Hi Elana this Samia ,I had tryed the sponge cake before but I added baking powder ,little bit baking soda &I add One table spoon coconut powder .After I whisked the eggs with sugar perfect .I start to fold the flour mix gradually the batter deflate &became very thick .The ingredient were 5eggs,half cup granulated sugar &done cub flour .What was the cause Ed the deflation ………your opinion is very much appreciated……thanks
Hi Samia! I have no idea why that happened as you didn’t follow my recipe. You added extra ingredients (baking powder, baking soda, coconut powder) you put less sugar (1/2 cup instead of 3/4 cup) less flour… it’s a completely different recipe. :)
Hey,
I somehow didn’t read properly and measured my cocoa and sugar together, so now I have all the dry stuff together… and ideas of what I could make with it?
I started over to do this cake this time, but now I have another mix to use up haha
Hi Vash! So you have 120 grams (½ cup+1½ tablespoon) granulated sugar + 20 grams (3 tablespoons) unsweetened cocoa powder. Let try to use the ingredients :) You can make chocolate muffins (you can use all granulated sugar instead of the brown sugar) or chocolate cake .
Let me know how it goes.
Hey Elena,
Glad I found this post. I’ve got the cake baking right now. I ran across this looking for a lighter sponge cake than the one I use for my black forest (the recipe i have is delish but dense for a sponge cake and includes quite a bit of butter). My brother requested a choco-raspberry cake for his birthday and since it’ll be partnering a dark choco-stout cake (my dad shares the birthday), I wanted a really light chocolate cake. Boy did that turn out to be hard to find! But this came together beautifully, and I’m using it as the base for a raspberry-mousse layer cake tomorrow.
Thank you!
Hi Sarah! The raspberry mousse sounds so good. :) How was the final result?
Hi,I just saw this post and I’m already trying it. I have soft wheat flour now which I’m using…fingers crossed….hopefully it will turn out great.
Ps…I like the fact that you have recipies /measurements for other pans. That’s so cool and thoughtful.
Hi Kukie, Happy New Year! How did it go?
Hi I’m interested in cooking this cake for a function using an oblobg tin roughly 33cm x 24cm x 5cm. Are you able to give me the break down of ingredients and cooking times. Thanks
Hi, Kelly! You will need: 10 eggs, 300 grams (1 1/2 cup) granulated sugar, 240 grams (2 cups+ 1 1/2 tablespoon) cake flour, 60 grams (1/2 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder.
Baking time will be slightly longer, check it after 45 minutes.