sophie takes photos: Perfect Sponge Cake!

A friend in need is a friend indeed, so when my lovely lady Chloe was having a bad week, I baked her a sponge cake! This recipe is award winning and by a dear old lady by the name of Lorna Knapp, and gee whiz it's lovely. Just so simple and classic and sponge-cakey. Sponge cakes also seem to have a reputation as difficult to make, but this is a breeze as long as you follow the recipe. I was feeling colourful when I made this one, so I added a small amount of pink food colouring to the cake and some pink sugar to the icing sugar as well, but I won't include that in the recipe.

For this, you'll need:
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 3/4 cup of caster sugar
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 2 Tbsp water
- 1 tsp butter
- 1 good capful vanilla

Serving
- Jam (preferably raspberry or strawberry)
- Whipped cream
- Icing sugar

Oven preheated to 175 degrees Celsius.

First, separate the eggs and put the yolks aside for later. Beat the whites until they're nice and firm, and add the caster sugar slowly until it's dissolved. To make sure it's dissolved, test it between your finger and thumb. If it's too grainy, keep beating.

Grease the tins (18 cm each) with butter and then flour, and then put them aside. Add the egg yolks to the egg whites one at a time, and be very sure not to over beat - just until they're combined.

Have the flour, baking powder and salt sifted together 3 times, and then add to the egg mixture. Start folding with a metal spoon, and finish it with a spatula to get the mix even.

Just bring to the boil the milk, water and butter, and pour this into the cake mixture slowly, folding. It's very important not to beat. Then, simply divide the mixture into two, and pour into the cake tins! Bake for 23 minutes.