Lemon Italian Sponge Cake, Pan di Spagna

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Lemon Italian Sponge Cake

The Italian name for this classic Lemon Italian sponge cake is Pan Di Spagna, meaning bread of sponge. What ever you call it after you try it you’ll call it delicious.

In my Italian upbringing this was the cake my Mom make often.

If the sponge cake was for a special occasion a birthday, a birth or a bridal shower the cake was fancied up with a variety of different fillings, frosted and decorated according to season or celebration.

Most often a simply syrup of some rum or  alcohol was poured over the cake while  still warm. Other times, it was a simple one layer sponge cake doused with a sugary lemony simple syrup. In this lemon Italian sponge cake recipe there is no alcohol or simple lemon syrup. Honestly I simply forgot this step, although the cake was delicious anyway.

For the simple lemon syrup boil 1/2 cup sugar with 1/4 cup lemon juice until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid has a syrupy continence about 5 minutes then pour over the warm cake layers,

3 ways to Make this lemon Italian Sponge Easy

Want to make this Italian sponge more easy??  One way You can do that is by using vanilla pudding for the lemon cream filling. Here’s how: follow the package directions on the package for the vanilla pudding substitute 1/4 of the milk with freshly squeezed lemon juice, it’s that easy.

The second way you can speed things up, when you make this  lemon sponge cake instead of the whipped cream frosting you can use whipped topping, although the whipped cream version is sure easy to make.

And third this Lemon Italian Sponge Cake  may sound and look intimidating, but it’s not. This sponge cake can be made in steps, the cake and  filling can be make the day before, then assembled and frosted the day you plan to serve it.

One more thing, be sure to use the right size cake pan. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ruined food by using the wrong size pan.

Ingredients

    • 8 eggs
    • 1 1/2 cups flour
    • 1 1/2 cup sugar
    • 4 teaspoons baking powder
    • 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
    • For the lemon filling
    • Fill a pan 2 inches deep with water set a bowl  securely on top
    • mix 3 eggs +1egg yolk 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup lemon juice cook over the water until thicken stirring continually about 10 minutes.
    • Let cool slightly stirring from time to time, then with an immersion blender or counter top blender add 1 stick of butter 1 tablespoon at a time with the blender running to form a smooth consistency
    • Spread the cooled caked with the cooled lemon cream

    Instructions

    1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees
    2. Grease 2 eight inch cake pans
    3. Beat eggs and sugar until light and double in volume about 5 minutes
    4. Add the lemon juice
    5. Blend flour and baking powder together
    6. Mix flour mixture into egg batter
    7. Divide batter among the two cake pans
    8. Bake for 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean
    9. Cool completely
    10. layer with the lemon cream
    11. Frost with stabilized whipped cream
    12. For the stabilized whip cream frosting mix 1 tsp plain gelatin with 1 Tbls. water In a mixing beat 2 cups of heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form then slowly add 1/2 cup powdered sugar, the gelatin and 1 Tbls vanilla
    13. Decorate with sweeten lemons and silvered almonds

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