Cherry (or other fruit) Sponge Cake (Bublanina)
Total Time
Prep: 20 min. Cook: 60 min.
Makes
10 servings
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup oil (like vegetable or canola)
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
6 cups or even more of pitted cherries (or other soft fruit, like halved strawberries, blueberries, etc.)
confectioner's sugar for top (optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 F.
Mix sugar and egg yolks with mixer in a large bowl. Add milk and oil (and optional almond extract), then flour and baking powder and mix until smooth.
In a separate medium-sized bowl, beat the egg whites with cleaned beaters until they form stiff peaks. Fold beaten egg whites gently into batter until combined.
Pour batter evenly onto a greased and floured long jelly roll pan with 1" rim (a lasagna pan will also work). Don't spread. The batter will appear very shallow, but the cake will rise. The batter may not reach the ends of the pan. It probably will after baking.
Place fruit evenly over batter, being very generous to cover most of the batter, as long as fruit doesn't pile on top of each other. The more fruit the better.
Bake for 35 minutes or more until a toothpick comes out clean (for jelly roll pan). Or possibly up to 45 plus minutes or so if using a smaller pan. [The cake will be a bit thicker.] Frozen cherries or blueberries may also affect baking time. Serve warm or cool. Sift confectioner's sugar over cooled cake, if desired.
