Orange Sponge Cupcakes (香橙海棉杯子蛋糕)

Hark! Do you hear the sound of thundering hooves?

The Year of the Horse is coming!

Happy Chinese New Year! 祝大家大吉大利!

My last recipe in the Year of the Snake, that's slithering away real fast, is orange sponge cupcakes. To bake these little cakes, please follow the recipe. If you don't, the texture may be coarse and rubbery instead of soft and fluffy.

Orange cake, when it's made with whole rather than separated eggs, is a little tricky. The acid in orange zest and orange juice would destabilise the eggs if it has half a chance. So you must make sure it doesn't have any chance, not even half.

There're a few booby traps in the recipe that may trip you up if you're not careful. Here's what you have to do:

⋈ The flour must be mixed with the eggs first, before orange zest is added to the batter. It protects the eggs from the acid in the orange peel. If you add the zest before or with the flour, the batter will become thin and bubbly. The bubbles won't magically disappear in the oven, so your cakes will be full of big holes.

⋈ After adding orange zest and juice, along with oil, the batter must be folded with a spatula, quickly and gently. A whisk would result in overmixing, allowing the acid to attack the eggs. If the batter becomes bubbly and runny, you can wave goodbye to your cakes.

⋈ The oven must be at 190°C. If the temperature is too low, the cakes set too slowly, giving the orange zest and juice time to attack the eggs.

There're many roads to Rome. If you compare my recipe to Nasilemaklover's,  you'll find that hers has more flour. Her orange sponge cupcakes use  100 g cake flour for 3 eggs whereas mine would have only 60 g cake flour  for 3 eggs. The more flour there is, the safer the eggs.

For those who like to compare recipes, here you go:


Between the two recipes, I prefer mine because . . . it's mine. Just as, I'm sure, NLL likes hers because it's hers. Hey, I know! You would be more objective. Why don't you try both and tell us which one is better?

ORANGE SPONGE CUPCAKES (香橙海棉杯子蛋糕) (Recipe for 5 cupcakes) 100 g eggs 6 g glucose 40 g castor sugar 40 g cake flour pinch salt 4 g orange zest finely grated with a sharp zester 30 g corn oil 10 g fresh orange juice add to corn oil Preheat oven to 190°C. Prep and measure ingredients as detailed above. Lay out 5 cardboard cupcake moulds (4 big- and 1 regular-sized). Whisk glucose, eggs and sugar till ribbon stage. Sift half of cake flour into egg mixture. With a whisk, mix till almost even. Sift remaining half of cake flour. Add salt. Mix with a whisk again, this time till just even. Add orange zest. Stir orange juice and oil mixture and add to batter. With a spatula, quickly scrape down and fold till just evenly mixed, banging mixing bowl against worktop 1-2 times, not too hard, to remove big air bubbles. Quickly fill cardboard moulds with batter to 90% full. Arrange moulds on baking tray, spaced apart. Place tray on oven's bottom shelf. Bake till batter doesn't move when gently jiggled, about 10 minutes. Move tray to upper middle shelf. Bake till cakes are golden brown, and springy when pressed lightly, another 5 minutes or so. Remove cakes to wire rack. Serve warm or leave to cool down completely. Cold cupcakes may be topped with buttercream, whipped cream or cream cheese frosting, and decorated with orange and mint leaves.

Cake Dos & Don'ts

This rather long post, for cake newbies, can be summarised in three words: Follow the recipe. Experienced bakers may change anything they like because they know what works or probably works. Beginners, OTOH, can't tell if a seemingly insignificant detail is actually a critical part of the recipe. If you're one of these, I hope this post shows you why you may want to do everything the recipe says, and not do everything the recipe doesn't say.

What to Do Before Your Cake Fails

a) Use an oven thermometer.  »

A lot of ovens aren't accurate. If the oven temperature is wrong, you have two problems. First, your cake may fail, or it may not as good as it could be. Second, if your cake fails, you have no idea what the problem is. It may be the oven temperature, or something else. If you know for a fact what the temperature is, you can at least eliminate the oven from your list of suspects.

Some recipes say "every oven is different". That may be true but one 180°C is the same as another 180°C. Whatever you're baking doesn't care what oven it's in. It only cares what the temperature (and humidity) is.

An oven thermometer measures the temperature in the oven; it can't tell where the heat is coming from. If the top heat is higher/lower than the bottom heat, your cake will fail. Fortunately, most ovens don't have this problem. If you think yours does, toast a slice of bread in the middle of the oven, on a rack at 220°C. If the top and bottom of the bread browns evenly, the oven is good.

b) Don't change the pan type.  »

Only round, square and rectangular "regular" pans made of the same material are interchangeable. The pan type goes with the recipe. It affects how quickly the batter heats up, how deep the batter is, and how much structural support the cake needs. These factors in turn affect how high the cake rises and whether it stays up there or comes back down after cooling down.

My recipes use aluminium pans. If you use dark coloured non-stick pans, your cakes will be different from mine.

c) Scale the recipe according to your pan size.  »

If your pan is bigger/smaller than the recipe's, you must scale the recipe proportionately. Of course, you could scale the recipe first, then find the proportionate pan size. How wide and long the pan is affects the depth of the batter. Deep batter rises more than shallow batter, all other things being equal.

If you don't know how to change the pan size or scale the recipe, please refer to question (i) and (j) in this post: Cake FAQ.

d) Don't replace any ingredient.  »

The only exception is flavourless oil, which may be swapped with any flavourless oil. Changing any other ingredient has an impact on the cake. Once you modify the recipe, it's yours. If you like the final product, congratulations. If you don't? It's your recipe, so you fix it.

e) Don't leave out any ingredient.  »

Bad recipes are like germs and idiots – they are everywhere. If your cake fails, wouldn't you want to know if the recipe really works and is worth another attempt? The only way you'd know, if you don't know much about baking, is by sticking to the recipe.

f) Measure everything accurately.  »

The more exact you are, the higher the chances of executing the recipe correctly.

Accuracy is crucial for fluffy cakes. Why? Because fluffy cakes have very weak structures. When the measurements are wrong, the cake will collapse or it won't be as fluffy as it should be. If you want to bake the lightest and fluffiest cake possible, one that doesn't collapse but is one the verge of collapsing, the balance of ingredients must be spot on. If you're not the obsessive-compulsive-anal-retentive type, don't bake fluffy cakes. Try fruit cakes instead.

g) Observe the eggs/whites/yolks you're whisking.  »

How long it takes to whisk eggs/whites/yolks to the stage required in the recipe depends on the speed and size of the whisk; the size, shape and material of the bowl, the atmospheric humidity and temperature; and the freshness, temperature, size and quantity of eggs being whisked. For beginners, this is not the time to multitask because you need to watch what you're whisking, like a hawk. Your cake will fail if the eggs/whites/yolks are under- or overwhisked. The latter may happen in seconds, so go slow towards the end and keep testing.

h) Once you start whisking eggs, work quickly.  »

If kept waiting too long, whisked eggs/yolks lose their air bubbles and whisked whites lose their extensibility. If you have to check on your baby, go to the loo or read the recipe, do it before you start whisking or after the cake starts baking.

i) The cake is done when it's done.  »

The baking time in the recipe is a guide, not cast in stone. Why? Because it's difficult to whisk every batch of eggs/whites/yolks to the same level of thickness/stiffness. The stiffer the whites are, the faster the cake sets and browns. Yolks and whole eggs have the opposite effect as they thicken.

If you scale the recipe, the baking time may vary by 5-10 minutes. You should test if the cake is done as per the recipe whether or not the recipe is scaled.

j) Prep the cake pan as directed.  »

Some readers line/grease the pan when the recipe says nothing about lining/greasing the pan. And then they whine when their cake fails, insisting they've followed the recipe to a T. These people should relearn their alphabets.

There're two parts to "following to a T":

1. Do everything the recipe says. 
2. Don't do everything the recipe doesn't say.

k) Keep an eye on the cake in the oven.  »

Knowing how and when the batter rises, sets, browns and sinks (!) helps with the post-mortem.

l) Cool down as directed.  »

It ain't over till the fat lady sings cake cools down. Don't let your guard down at the last minute or your cake may shrink excessively or collapse.

What to Do After Your Cake Fails

m) Retrace your steps.  »

Check if you had:

1. The right ingredients.
2. The right amount of ingredients.
3. The right method for combining the ingredients.
4. The right pan size.
5. The right pan type.
6. The right preparation for the pan.
7. The right oven temperature.
8. The right baking method.
9. The right method for testing if the cake is done.
10. The right cooling down method.

n) Don't meddle with the recipe.  »

When you meddle, you change the recipe. Why does your cake fail in the first place? Because you changed the recipe. You can't solve a problem with what causes it, can you? 

o) Don't ask me why your cake fails.  »

 Why not? Because:

1. If the recipe works, then why your cake fails boils down to which part of the recipe you didn't follow. The best person to answer the question is you, not me because I wasn't there when you did it.
2. If you think the recipe doesn't work, the last thing you'd want is advice from the person who posted the recipe that doesn't work.
3. If the recipe really doesn't work, you're not going to hear it from me.

Cake FAQ

a) Why didn't your cake rise?  »

Short answer: Because you did not follow the recipe.

Long answer:

1. Egg whites were overwhisked and inextensible.
2. Whisked egg whites, kept waiting too long, deteriorated and became inextensible.
3. Eggs/yolks were underwhisked. Didn't have enough air bubbles.
4. Whisked eggs deflated when mixed with oil/melted butter and dry ingredients.
5. Not enough eggs/whites/yolks.
6. Not enough non-fat liquids, so not enough steam to help the cake rise.
7. Batter was too thick. Thick batter was too heavy to rise well.
8. Batter was too thin. Thin batter allowed air bubbles to escape easily.
9. Too little baking powder/soda.
10. Baking powder was stale.
11. Too little acid. Baking soda couldn't activate.
12. Too much acid. Batter was set before it could rise.
13. Wrong flour type.
14. Batter was kept waiting too long before it was baked, allowing air bubbles to escape, and the baking powder and whisked egg whites to deteriorate.
15. Oven wasn't hot enough. Without enough heat, air bubbles couldn't expand, water couldn't convert to steam, and double-acting baking powder couldn't activate.
16. Oven was too hot. Batter was set before it could rise.
17. Wrong pan type, which affected the heat transfer. 
18. Pan was too wide. Shallow batter was set before it could rise.

b) Why did your cake crack?   »

Short answer: Because you did not follow the recipe.

Long answer:

1. Egg whites were underwhisked and too extensible.
2. Too much egg white. 
3. Too little flour.
4. Oven was too hot.
5. Top of oven was too hot. The crust hardened too quickly, then ruptured when the batter underneath puffed up.
6. Too much baking powder/soda.
7. Too much non-fat liquid.
8. Wrong pan type.
9. Pan was too narrow.

c) Why did your cake collapse/sink/deflate?  »

Short answer: Because you did not follow the recipe.

Long answer:

1. Egg whites were underwhisked and provided poor structural support.
2. Oven was too hot. Cake rose higher than it should, so it came back down due to insufficient structural support.
3. Too much baking soda/powder.
4. Too much acid. Strictly speaking, the cake didn't sink. The sides rose but the centre didn't, so it looked like the centre sank.
5. Uneven mixing.
6. Too little flour.
7. Underbaked.
8. Cooling down method was wrong. Fragile cakes need to cool down inverted and stuck to the pan or they would sink.

d) Why was there a hard layer at the bottom of your cake?  »

Because the batter set too slowly, allowing starch to separate and sink to the bottom of the pan, where it hardened.

Why did the batter set too slowly?

Short answer: Because you did not follow the recipe.

Long answer:

1. Oven wasn't hot enough.
2. "Bathtub", if there was a water-bath, wasn't metallic.
3. "Bath water" wasn't hot enough.
4. Not enough acid.
5. Not enough eggs.
6. Not enough flour.
7. Not enough starch.
8. Not enough cream cheese.
9. Wrong type of cream cheese, that didn't have enough starch.
10. Too much liquid.

e) Why did your cake shrink after cooling down?  »

All cakes shrink as they cool down.

f) Why did your cake shrink excessively after cooling down?  »

Short answer: Because you did not follow the recipe.

Long answer:

1. Overbaked. Cake lost too much moisture, so it shrank.
2. Too much non-fat liquid. H2O turned into steam when heated, creating empty pockets which, when excessive, made the cake shrink excessively.
3. Too much egg white, which is 90% water. Refer to point 2.
4. Not enough flour.
5. Not enough yolks.
6. Pan was prepped wrongly. Don't grease/line the pan unless the recipe says so.

g) Why did your cake fail even though you followed my recipe "closely"?  »

Reader cath's Japanese cheesecake...

KT's Japanese cheesecake................ . .

Reader cath asked me what she'd done wrongly with her Japanese soufflé cheesecake. She'd followed all the steps "closely", according to her. Did she really? My recipe says she should bake the cake in a bain-marie. She obviously didn't because her cake was brown all over. If she did, the water would have prevented the sides and bottom from browning.

Not only did cath not follow the baking instructions, she also did not follow the list of ingredients. Her cake was so overbaked the crust was thick and brown but the inside, she said, was still wet. If she had followed the ingredients detailed, her horribly overbaked cake would have dried out.

It is, of course, everyone's prerogative to not follow my recipe. Whatever floats your boat and all that, you know? Just please don't whine and ask me why if your boat sinks. When you ignore my instructions and then you want me to speculate about which part of my instructions you have ignored, my blood pressure goes up. I become very sarcastic when my BP rises. My response to cath was: "If what you did was close to the recipe, then the moon is close to planet Earth." 

h) Why did your cake fail even though you followed my recipe to a T?  »

There are only two possible explanations for your cake failure. Either my recipe is crap, or you didn't follow my recipe to a T even though you think/say you did. If the former – it isn't but let's assume it is – I'm not going to admit it, am I? If the latter, I can't help you unless you show me a video of you not following my recipe to a T. Hence, the question is pointless.

i) Your cake pan is bigger/smaller than mine. How do you adjust the recipe?  »

You must scale the recipe by the percentage difference in size.

1. Calculate the surface area of the pan used in the recipe.
2. Calculate the surface area of your cake pan.
3. Scale the recipe up/down by the percentage difference between the two pan's surface areas.

A round pan's surface area is 3.1 x r x r. A square/rectangular pan's surface area is l x b.

If you can't handle the arithmetic, get a primary school kid to help you. You may want to pretend you're testing him/her.

j) You want to scale the recipe up/down. What pan size should you use?  »

The pan size must be proportionate to the quantity of ingredients.

1. Calculate how many percent you want to scale the recipe.
2. Calculate the surface area of the pan used in the recipe.
3. Increase/decrease (2) by (1). This is the surface area of the pan you need.
4. Using (3), calculate the length and breadth, or diameter, of the pan you may use. The height of your pan should be the same as mine or higher.

A round pan's surface area is 3.1 x r x r. A square/rectangular pan's surface area is l x b.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about or your little brain is threatening to explode, please seek assistance. A primary school kid (with a pass in maths) should be able to help you.

k) Your pan type is different from mine. Does it matter?  »

Only round, square and rectangular "regular" pans made of the same material are interchangeable.

A chiffon cake should be baked in a two-piece chiffon tube pan that's not non-stick. Some people use a bundt pan instead, probably thinking all pans with a hole in the middle are the same. Sigh . . . they are, I presume, not civil engineers, architects or lawyers.

l) Why do I (sometimes) whisk egg whites before egg yolks?  »

The stability of whisked egg whites depends on the amount of sugar and cream of tartar added. If there is no cream of tartar and very little sugar, egg whites must be whisked after yolks or they would lose the extensibility that makes the cake rise, as they sit waiting. If there is cream of tartar and enough sugar, then the egg whites are quite stable and may be whisked before yolks, without adversely affecting the final product.

m) Why do I use a whisk to fold whisked egg whites?  »

A whisk is better than a spatula for folding egg whites. Each prong on the whisk is equivalent to one spatula, so folding with a whisk is faster. Speed is crucial because if the folding takes too long, the egg whites would deteriorate and lose their extensibility, resulting in a cake that's short and dense.

Some people believe whisked egg whites should be folded gently, and therefore slowly, or they (egg whites, not people) would deflate. That's wrong. There's no need to be gentle because the egg whites are whisked by the equivalent of a tornado (or two). It doesn't get more violent than that. Folding gently isn't necessary but at least it does no harm. Folding slowly, however, is a big (possibly fatal) mistake. The longer whisked egg whites wait, the more inextensible they become, the less the cake rises.

n) Why do I (sometimes) block the oven's top heat?  »

When the top of the cake browns and hardens too quickly, it'd try to stop the batter underneath from rising. If it succeeds, the cake would be short and dense. If it fails, the cake would be cracked. Blocking the top heat keeps the crust thin and soft, so the cake rises well and doesn't crack.

o) Wouldn't the cake collapse if you open the oven to rotate it (the cake, not oven)?  »

No, not if you're fast. Yes if you knock the pan against something or slam the oven door, but these are separate issues from opening the oven. Your cake will be fine if you don't lift the pan. Just slide it around the rack, turning it 180°, then close the door gently. The oven should be opened for no more than 2-3 seconds.

p) Can you replace     (fill in the blank)     with     (fill in the blank)    ?  »

Can you replace cake flour with plain flour? Plain flour with self-raising flour? Self-raising flour with plain flour? Plain flour with coconut flour?

Substitution of ingredients is the top FAQ on both my blog and YouTube channel. If I had a recipe for boiling water, someone is bound to ask if there's a substitute for water. Or if he could make boiled water without water, like the reader who asked if she could make Japanese cheesecake without cheese. And the other reader who wanted to make Hong Kong egg tarts without eggs.

Some readers can't be bothered to come up with alternatives. They want to replace something, and they want me to tell them what to replace it with. Of course, they have an unspoken condition. The substitute must be something that they like, and that they have or will fall out of the sky and land in their laps.

One reader, jas, asked if it's OK to use "normal milk" instead of full-fat milk. She obviously didn't know what "normal milk" is. She didn't know what full-fat milk is either, and she didn't want to know. She just wanted it removed from the recipe, so it couldn't bother her.

Ladies and gentlemen, yes, you can. You can put and not put whatever you like in your cake. Because it is your cake. Your boat, float it your way. Good luck.

q) How many eggs/whites/yolks do you need?  »

As many as necessary to get the required weight of eggs/whites/yolks in the recipe.

r) Is your oven too hot/cold?  »

I don't know. I am not a thermometer.

s) Can I convert grams to cups?  »

Of course I can, as soon as someone tells me how to measure block cream cheese and strawberries with a cup. And as soon as everyone who measures with cups agrees on a universal method. Do they want to :

• Scoop or spoon flour? 
• Sift or not sift? 
• Tap or not tap? 
• Level or shake? 
• Use a dry cup or liquid cup? 
• Use an American customary cup (236.6 ml), American legal cup (240 ml), Japanese cup (200 ml), Australian/metric cup (250 ml), or Canadian cup (227 ml)?

t) What brand/model is my mixer?  »

I bought my mixer about 10 years ago. What was a good brand then may or may not be a good brand now. I suggest you refer to recent product reviews for up-to-date recommendations. All the major brands for small kitchen appliances – such as KitchenAid, Bosch, Braun, Philips, Kenwood, Cuisinart, etc – would have the type of mixer I use.

u) Where did I buy my mixer?  »

I get asked this question a lot, which is quite puzzling. Why would anyone need to know where I bought my mixer? If you want to buy one, then go buy one. A mixer is a small kitchen appliance, so you go to retailers that sell small kitchen appliances. Any departmental store or shop that specialises in household appliances would stock a few brands.

v) Where can you buy cake flour in Australia?  »

Why would someone living in Australia ask someone who is not living in Australia where to buy stuff in Australia? WHY? Somebody . . . ? Anybody?

Here's where you can buy cake flour in Australia:
http://shop.coles.com.au/online/national/anchor-lighthouse-flour-plain-cake-biscuit-pastry.

Make Google your bitch! (Or stud, if you prefer.)

w) Where is the recipe?  »

This is one of the FAQ on my YouTube channel. Viewers who ask the question either can't be bothered to look, or they don't have enough intelligence to figure out where to look. If the former, they don't really want my recipe. If the latter, they wouldn't know how to follow my recipe anyway.

When I first started my YouTube channel, I told viewers who couldn't find the link to my recipe to click on "show more". (I was afraid if I'd said "description box" instead, they didn't know what that was.) Some people said they read looked at my blog but couldn't find my recipe. One viewer asked "Where is show more?" I just gave up, to save my sanity. Now, my answer to the question is: "Viewers need an IQ of at least 55 to access the recipe. Sorry for the restriction."

x) What is     (fill in the blank)    ?  »

What is cake flour, pandan, lye, etc? Any "what is" question has shitloads of answers on the Internet. Why would anyone want to wait for me to reply instead of getting the answer, plus photos, with just a few clicks? What planet are they from? They don't know how to Google?

y) Do I weigh eggs with/without shells?  »

Let's say you need 220 g eggs which may be, say, 4¹⁄₄ eggs. How do you weigh ¹⁄₄ of an egg with its shell? And when the white and yolk are weighed separately, how do you split the shell? Maybe those who ask if eggs are weighed with shells know how. I am not so clever. Besides, there's nothing in my recipes about discarding egg shells. If the weight stated is for eggs with shells, then the shells would be in the cake.

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake (草莓奶油蛋糕; Strawberry Cream Cake)

Japanese strawberry shortcake is a layered sponge cake filled and topped with whipped cream and strawberries. It is what I call a ménage à trois made in heaven, because each party brings out the best in the other two.

The red and white cake is very popular in Japan, especially for Christmas. I guess having the same colour scheme as Santa Claus wins a lot of votes during the Yuletide season.

There're a few ways to make a sponge cake. Some people make a dry cake, then spray/brush/drizzle it with a syrup. Others try to make a moist cake by using oil or butter, and water or milk.

I find the syrup option a bit tricky because it's a fine line between moist and soggy. Adding a non-fat liquid isn't ideal either because water, and milk, dilutes the fragrance of the eggs and oil/butter. It also makes the cake shrink more after cooling down.

My sponge cake has lots of oil, more than most other recipes. And there's liquid glucose, my "secret ingredient", to make it really fluffy, moist and fragrant.

Liquid glucose helps make sponge cake moist because it's hygroscopic, i.e. it absorbs and holds water. How does it make the cake soft and fluffy? By helping the cake rise. The higher the cake rises, the softer and fluffier it is. How does glucose help make the cake fragrant? By doing away with the need for any water or milk. Glucose itself is quite tasteless.

If I had a recipe for boiling water, some readers would say, "I don't have water. Can I use something else?" So someone is bound to ask if glucose may be replaced with sugar, or golden syrup, or something, or other. Here's the answer:



If you want to try my sponge cake recipe, be warned that it's quite princessy. This is a recipe you'd want to follow to a T. If you don't – or think you have but actually haven't – you may have a few problems, such as (but definitely not restricted to):

⋈ If the batter is very bubbly after oil is added, that's a very, very bad sign. Something is measured wrongly, or the eggs are underwhisked, or the flour isn't thoroughly mixed, or all of the above. The cake likely will not rise well.

⋈ If the batter is lumpy, you'll find lumps of flour sitting in the bottom of the cake. (These lumps are very evil. They group themselves together to make sure you see them and taste them.)

⋈ If there's too much egg white, the cake will look like an award-winning Shar-Pei (although this is a good thing if you're making a cake that looks like a Shar-Pei, award-winning or otherwise).

⋈ If the oven is too hot, the cake won't rise well. If the oven isn't hot enough, the cake won't rise well either. Yup, this cake is as fussy as Goldilocks.

Of course, don't let my warning scare you. At the end of the day, how difficult can baking a cake be, right?

Once you've got the sponge cake nailed, the rest is easy. If, like me, you don't know how to ice the sides of the cake nicely, then don't. The cake looks prettier anyway with the sides cut off. Icing the top is like spreading butter on toast, so that shouldn't be a problem.



My sponge cake is delicious plain but it's at its best embellished with whipped cream and strawberries. 1 + 1 + 1 = >3 and all that jazz, you know? Japanese strawberry shortcake isn't only good for Christmas. I reckon the classic is good whenever strawberries are in season. And since strawberries are never out of season nowadays, the red and white cake is good all year round.

JAPANESE STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE  (草莓奶油蛋糕; STRAWBERRY CREAM CAKE) (Recipe for one 20 x 12 cm cake) 10 g glucose 150 g eggs 60 g castor sugar 60 g cake flour 1/16 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla extract 45 g corn oil 200 g fresh dairy cream, 35% fat, cold 1 tbsp castor sugar 1/3 tsp vanilla extract 100 g large strawberries hull, rinse and dry with paper towels; slice 3 mm thick 4 small strawberries with green leaves rinse and dry with paper towels; cut into 2 halves 1. Place bowl for whipping cream in fridge. Preheat oven to 185°C. Line bottom of 20 x 12 x 5 cm cake pan with parchment paper. 2. To make sponge cake, beat glucose, eggs and sugar till ribbon stage. Sift flour into mixture in 3-4 batches, adding salt along with the last batch. Mix gently with whisk after each addition, stirring just top half of batter, till smooth. Drizzle with vanilla extract and oil. Mix with whisk, again stirring just top half of batter, till you don't see streaks of vanilla extract or oil. Fold with spatula till just evenly mixed, banging mixing bowl against worktop a few times. 3. Pour batter into cake pan, slowly and from about 30 cm high. Tap pan against worktop a few times. Place pan in bottom of oven. Place baking tray in top of oven. Bake till batter doesn't move when gently jiggled, 15-20 minutes. Remove baking tray. Continue baking till cake is nicely browned and springs back slightly when pressed gently, another 10-15 minutes. 4. Remove cake to wire rack. Leave till pan is just cool enough to handle, 10 minutes or so. Run knife along sides of cake. Flip cake onto wood surface. Remove pan. Place cake on wire rack, right way up. Leave till completely cool. 5. To make whipped cream, place cold cream in thoroughly chilled bowl along with sugar. Whisk till cream is stiff. Add vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly. 6. To assemble, remove parchment paper from cake. Slice cake horizontally with serrated knife or cake slicer into 2 equal halves. Spread 1/3 of cream on bottom half, evenly. Arrange sliced strawberries on top of cream. Spread with half of remaining cream. Place remaining cake on cream, cut side up. Spread with remaining cream. Place cake in freezer till cream is very firm, 10-15 minutes. Level and smooth top cream layer. Trim edges with serrated knife, wiping knife after each cut. Arrange strawberry halves on cake. Chill till ready to serve, covered if keeping overnight or longer. Meanwhile, enjoy trimmings.