29 Toppings That Take Sponge Cake To The Next Level

Light, bright, and mildly sweet — it's what we think of when we hear "sponge cake." Sponge cake is not just any type of cake (even though the layers of a cake are called sponges). By definition, this dessert features the standard ingredients of eggs, flour, and sugar. It is not the same as chiffon cake, which uses denser ingredients like vegetable oil and baking soda to make a heavier, denser crumb. One popular type of sponge cake found in the United States is angel food cake, which calls for the baker to whip the egg whites to add structure and a delicate scaffolding to the cake in the absence of butter and egg yolks. The category also includes the Genoise sponge cake, which uses whipped egg for its height rather than any chemical leavening agents.

Since the classification of a sponge cake is quite vast, there are many opportunities for a baker to put their own creative spin on this baking classic. Here are some of the best ingredients to top and decorate your soft, towering dessert.

Chocolate ganache is the perfect topping if you're looking for a dark, indulgent pairing to a chocolate or a vanilla sponge cake. For example, chocolate ganache, which is a combination of melted dark chocolate and butter, is used as a key topping for an elaborate classic opera cake. When chilled, the ganache solidifies into a thin sheet that makes the cake's appearance very recognizable. An alternative to adding a sheet of ganache to the top of your cake is to drip it down the sides for a visually-stunning appearance.

Fresh raspberries are the perfect simple garnish for sponge cakes and rolls. Not only does the bright red color provide a powerful contrast to the other yellow and white ingredients, but each raspberry provides a refreshing pop in your mouth when you bite into the cake. We recommend pairing this produce with a raspberry jam filling and vanilla sponge base, but we could also see applications where it could provide brightness to a chocolate or pistachio-flavored sponge.

Caramelized bananas are not only beautiful to look at atop a delicate sponge cake, but the flavor is complex yet familiar. You can make a twist on bananas foster at home (sans ice cream) and use the dish to garnish the top of your sponge cake.

This recipe coats each banana in a caramel sauce infused with cinnamon, nutmeg, and dark rum. Then, the bananas are torched to burn off the residual alcohol. Once the bananas have cooled enough, spoon them with the sauce atop your cake.

Vanilla pudding is the perfect ingredient to fill the inside of your sponge cake — plus, it can be made in a pinch with store-bought pudding powder. Although it can be paired with other fruity toppings, our favorite way to use this ingredient is to fill an upgraded Victoria sponge cake. The pudding, which is not historically used in the British dessert, adds a creamy flavor that helps disperse the sweetness of the jam and fresh whipped cream topping.

While we've only tried making sponge cake with vanilla pudding, it would be possible to substitute another pudding powder, like chocolate or cheesecake, into this recipe. You'll want to use the "Cook & Serve" pudding instead of the instant variety.

Passionfruit curd has jumped into the baking spotlight in recent years thanks to its appearance in many of the recipes on the "Great British Baking Show." Like other types of curd, this ingredient is made by mixing together passionfruit flesh, sugar, lemon juice, eggs, and butter.

The flavor is more floral than other citrus curds and has the added textural benefit of tiny black seeds. The fragrant fruit is best accompanied as a sandwich layer of the sponge cake with an ample amount of whipped cream.

Instead of grabbing a sieve of powdered sugar for your sponge cake, we recommend dusting it with matcha powder instead. It will add a mild, herbaceous flavor to your cake and works best with fresh raspberries and strawberries.

You might also consider adding matcha powder directly to your cake batter to develop a bright green hue. Ceremonial matcha tends to have a more pronounced color than culinary matcha, which is why we recommend using it for your sponge cake.

We can't talk about sponge cake toppings without mentioning one of the most common fruity accents: strawberry jam. While there's nothing wrong with using strawberry jam to sandwich your sponge layers together, there's something special about making your own easy strawberry jam.

Cook down and mash your fresh (or frozen) strawberries with lemon juice and sugar, cool, and store in a jar in the fridge for up to 10 days. When you're ready to apply it to your sponge cake, pipe a buttercream, cream cheese, or whipped cream icing buffer and fill in with your homemade jam.

Although meringue frosting is more difficult to make than other types of frosting, it is beneficial to use when you need the frosting to hold its shape well. A meringue-based frosting, including strong egg whites, is best for piping designs on your sponge cake.

One type of sponge cake that uses a meringue frosting is a Cipriani cake. The layers of Italian sponge and vanilla cream are finished with a coating of sweet meringue frosting brûléed into a professional-looking dessert. You can also transform this cake into a take on a lemon meringue pie by substituting the vanilla cream with lemon curd.

The only thing better than adding fresh berries to your sponge cake topping is to add macerated berries instead. Mixing the sliced berries with lemon juice and sugar is perfect for a strawberry sponge cake because the other ingredients will soften the berries and amplify the floral flavor. You can spoon the berries right onto the cake with cream cheese icing and watch as the juices soak down into the sponge and spread strawberry goodness throughout the dessert.

Australia's Lamington Cake is a sponge-based cake dessert made by dropping pieces of sponge in chocolate and rolling them in desiccated coconut. However, there are other variations of the recipe that add a swipe of raspberry jam, salted caramel, or apple filling.

To make this dessert at home, you'll need to freeze fresh pieces of sponge beforehand; this makes the cake less prone to breaking when drenched in the chocolate sauce. Once the cake is covered in coconut, it must be placed in the refrigerator to harden so the coconut sticks to the sponge. Whether you want to abide by the traditional Lamington recipe or try something more unique, keep the desiccated coconut around for texture and tropical flair.

Coffee lovers won't be able to escape this one. If you want to add a java flair to your sponge cake, you should consider soaking the sponge in a sugary espresso glaze or adding coffee to your frosting. One potential recipe is a variation on Blum's coffee crunch cake — with a vanilla sponge substituted for the denser chiffon cake.

This confection features a coffee whipped cream made with heavy cream, sugar, vanilla extract, and instant coffee granules. The granules are preferable to liquid coffee because they won't make the icing too weepy while also maintaining a strong coffee flavor.  You can also get creative and add a coffee crunch shatter made with sugar, strong coffee, corn syrup, and baking soda to garnish the top of your cake.

There's no summertime fruit quite like peaches. In Uruguay, fresh peaches are paired with layers of genoise sponge, dulce de leche, whipped cream, and meringue coating in a dessert called chajá.

The peaches alone are the star of the dish, though; we recommend using the ones at peak ripeness so that your fork will easily slice through them. You can slice fresh pieces thinly and layer them between the sponge or make preserved peaches to add to your sponge cakes all year round.

Biscoff cookies are delightful in any form — whether you're 10,000 feet in the air on a Delta flight eating the complimentary snack or snagging Speculoos cookie butter from the cabinet for a late-night snack. Once you try adding this cookie to your sponge cake, though, we don't think there's any way to go back to eating a plain sponge cake.

We recommend adding Biscoff cookies to the sponge itself, as well as the spreadable Speculoos cookie butter. Infuse Biscoff flavors into your icing via the Speculoos spread, and finish your sponge cake with a few decorative cookie pieces.

You need to make a sponge cake with apple pie filling this fall. Pre-cooking your apple pie filling with cinnamon, sugar, cornstarch, and apple slices is ideal because it will concentrate the moisture and flavor from the filling — plus make it easier to eat. Once your filling has cooked down and lost significant volume, you can cool it down and spoon it in between the layers of your vanilla or cinnamon sponge.