The earliest known recipe for sponge cake (or biscuit bread) from Gervase Markham's The English Huswife (1615) is prepared by mixing flour and sugar into eggs, then seasoning with anise and coriander seeds.

[6] Traditional American sponge recipes diverged from earlier methods of preparation by adding ingredients like vinegar, baking powder, hot water or milk.

[8] Although sponge cake is usually made without butter, its flavour is often enhanced with buttercream, pastry cream or other types of fillings and frostings.

The delicate texture of sponge and angel food cakes, and the difficulty of their preparation, made them more expensive than daily staple pies.

The historic Frances Virginia Tea Room in Atlanta served sponge cake with lemon filling and boiled icing.

[6] This type of buttery cake was not possible without baking powder, which was discovered by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843, allowing the sponge to rise higher.

Some Vietnamese varieties may have fresh herbs like mint, lemongrass or basil added to the batter, and be topped with caramelized tropical fruit.

Milk and jaggery are added to sponge cake in India which is served with the creamy Sri Lankan speciality "avocado crazy".

It may be based on the Washington pie, originally two layers of yellow sponge cake with jam filling and a dusting of icing sugar.

Anecdotal legends about the cake's origin associate it with a secret recipe passed down by nuns to the village of Alfeizerão.

[28] All variants loef, lof and ló are related to the English word luff, and refer to the windward (aka luffward / loofward) side of a nautical sail.

Introduced to Japan by Portuguese traders in the 16th century, the Japanese variations on the cake are known as castella, kasutera or simply pan.

[35] Isabella Beeton included a recipe for her version of Tipsy cake in Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management where the cake was baked in a decorative mould before it was soaked in sherry and brandy with custard poured over, or broken into smaller pieces and topped with whipped cream like a trifle.

The earliest known form of trifle was a simple thickened cream flavored with sugar, rose water and ginger but recipes for egg-thickened custard poured over sponge fingers, almond macaroons and sack-soaked ratafia biscuits are known from the mid-18th century.

The recipe evolved from the classic pound cake made with equal proportions of flour, fat, sugar and eggs.

The invention of baking powder in 1843 by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in Birmingham allowed the cake to rise higher than was previously possible.

[38][16] Cookery author Felicity Cloake writes that this invention "was celebrated with a patriotic cake"—the Victoria sponge.

[15] The traditional method involves creaming caster sugar with fat (usually butter), mixing thoroughly with beaten egg, then folding flour and raising agent into the mixture.

Therefore, the beating of egg whites in the mix to achieve aeration is an essential characteristic of any Passover sponge recipe.

The sponge, or a heavier variant in the form of an almond pudding, may be included as an element of the dessert in the Passover meal during the Seder service when it is often combined in serving with a fruit compote.

[44][45] The Yule log is a Christmas dessert made from a sheet of sponge cake spread with filling and rolled up.

Decorative elements like mushrooms made of meringue, spun-sugar spiderwebs or crushed pistachios can be added to enhance the cake's finished appearance.