My Mom’s Ah-Ma Sponge Cake Recipe (budgetpantry.com)
Makes one 6″ x 8.5″ cake

What you need:
60g butter
15ml oil (any oil like corn oil, olive oil)
90g plain flour, sifted
6 eggs (55g), whites and yolks separated
60ml milk
A small pinch of salt
15ml lemon juice
75g caster sugar

Steps:

Preheat oven to 160C and line your cake pan with baking paper.

Melt butter and oil over a bain marie. When melted, remove from stove top and add the flour. Stir with a whisk till combined.

Add the milk and egg yolks.

Continue to stir till mixture becomes creamy.

Now we beat the egg whites. Add the egg whites into your mixer and add a small pinch of salt. Start the motor on low and beat till you start to see froth. Add the lemon juice and 1/3 of the sugar and beat on high. As the egg white starts fluffing up, add the remaining sugar in two instalments and continue beating on high till it’s at a stage between soft peaks and stiff peaks (i.e., don’t over do it)

Add 1/5 of the egg white to the butter mixture and mix gently with a spatula. No need to fold at this stage.

Now the folding starts. Gently fold in the rest of the egg white in stages. Once you add the first scoop of egg white, start folding with your spatula from bottom up (never attack the egg white from the center or stir!). Repeat the folding until all the egg white is incorporated and mixture becomes thick and creamy.

Transfer mixture into cake pan and lightly drop the pan 1-2 times on the table before sending it to the oven.

Bake at 160C for 1 hour in a water bath. You can refer to this page if you’re unfamiliar with a water bath (no need to wrap with foil since we’re not using a springform pan). Once cake is done, remove from pan and cool before slicing.

Blueberry Butter Loaf Cake (budgetpantry.com)
Makes: One 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf tin
Total cost per cake: $6.58 (less if you omit the blueberries)

What you need:

135g salted butter, cubed
110g fine caster sugar
3 eggs, separated (I used Egg Story’s 55g pasteurised fresh eggs)
120g self raising flour
5 tablespoons milk (you can use plain yogurt!)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 package blueberries, 125g

Steps:

Preheat oven to 170C. Lightly grease a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf tin and line with baking paper.

In your stand mixer, beat egg whites still stiff peaks form. When done, keep in fridge til later use. For a tutorial on how to beat egg whites, please see this post.

Combine the butter and sugar. Beat on low speed til pale and creamy.

Add the egg yolks, one by one (about 30 seconds before adding the next one), plus the vanilla essence.

Sift the flour and baking powder. Add in two additions, followed by the five tablespoons milk. Scrape down the sides as you beat to combine.

Add the whipped egg whites and fold in til combined. Set aside 18-20 blueberries to decorate. Dust the rest with a bit of flour first before folding them into the batter together with the lemon zest.

Pour the batter into your prepared tin and decorate the top with blueberries. Bake for 45 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool before eating, but I never do.

How much I spent:

$2.20 for butter
$2.98 for blueberries
$0.00 for eggs (thank you Egg Story! but they cost about $0.30 each)
$0.40 for lemon
Everything else from my pantry