Sponge drops keep falling on my head

“But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be going red”…… No, this post is not about the Burt Bacharach song but I have had sponge drops on my mind for the last couple of days. It all started at a social gathering I attended a while ago, where a good friend’s Mum (who is a wonderful baker), had brought along some of her delicious baked goods to share. There was one particular baked goodie that was a special one. It had two bits of sponge cake shaped like a small biscuit with lemon curd and cream sandwiched in between the sponge. It was absolutely devine! I had never had anything like it before. I was so impressed that I asked my friend’s Mum if she would share the recipe with me because I wanted to feature it on my blog. Unfortunately, it’s a well-guarded secret recipe and I wasn’t able to get a hold of it. Silly me never asked for the name of said delicious treat, so I wasn’t able to do any research to find similar recipes. Fast forward to a couple of days ago, another friend asked me some advice regarding a recipe he was tackling. The recipe was for sponge drops. I had never heard of sponge drops before, but when I read the description of what they were, it cast my mind back to that delicious treat I had at the social gathering. AH HA! I’ve cracked the mystery! This recipe is by no means any comparison to what I had previously, and I’m still hoping that one day that special recipe will somehow reach me, however, this version will satisfy my cravings for the time being. Sponge drops are incredibly easy to make and are wonderful to have with a cup of tea. You could even make different flavoured ones using any flavour of jam or curd. I decided to use my all-time favourite strawberry jam, Bonne Maman.This recipe makes 12 sponge drops.

Sponge drops with strawberry jam & Chantilly cream
3 eggs, separated, at room temperature
90g self-raising flour, sifted
90g caster sugar

Chantilly cream
150ml thickened cream
½ tsp vanilla bean paste
2 tsp icing sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 180˚C (fan forced). Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Using an electric beater, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add the egg yolks and gradually add the sugar whilst still beating and keep beating until the mixture has greatly increased in volume and is very pale and thick.

Sift the flour over the top of the egg mixture and gently fold in with a metal spoon until combined.

Some recipes I’ve seen say you can pipe the cake mixture onto the lined baking trays, but I would be concerned that you might squeeze the air out of the mixture. Instead, I’ve used a tablespoon to drop the mixture onto the lined baking trays, leaving a few centimetres between each one to allow for spreading.

Chuck the trays into the oven and bake for about 7 minutes or until the sponge drops are puffed and golden in colour. Leave them to cool completely before lifting them off the baking paper (I used a palette knife to ease them off).

To make the Chantilly cream, whip the cream, vanilla bean paste and icing sugar until soft peaks form.

To fill the sponge drops, pair up the sponge drops that are of similar size. Spread about a teaspoon of jam on the flat side of one of the sponge drops. Place a dob of Chantilly cream on the jam, then sandwich the filling with another sponge drop. Dust with a little icing sugar before serving with your favourite cup of tea.

Note: I would like to thank my friend’s Mum for introducing me to these gorgeous treats, and my other friend for bringing my attention to the sponge drop recipe. This blog post is dedicated to you both! I’ve referred to a couple of recipes for these sponge drops, so if you would like to see the original recipes, click here and here. These sponge drops ended up being a little bigger than I wanted, so the next time I make these, I’ll reduce the amount of cake mixture for each sponge drop from 1 tbs to ¾ tbs.

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