You can't go wrong with grandma's sand cake recipe: the sand mixture is wonderfully moist, fluffy, and quick to prepare!
Grandma's sand cake is super simple but always delicious. This recipe makes a guaranteed non-dry alternative to the traditional cake batter.
Taste and Occasion
Granted, sand cake often seems unspectacular. But with the right recipe, you'll quickly get a wonderfully moist and fluffy cake, and it's easy to dress up. No wonder grandma's sand cake has been famous for so long!
Ingredients
First, a short clarification of terms. Everyone knows the term sand cake, but you probably need to learn what exactly it is. A so-called sand cake is more or less "heavy", because of fat-rich batter. The sand dough consists of soft butter, sugar, eggs, (comparatively little) flour, and baking powder. And: cornstarch. The latter is typical for sand cake. It should actually have a roughly sandy consistency. The more cornstarch in the dough, the more "sandy" and uniformly finer the pore. But in turn, it will also be a bit drier and crumbly. So please don't make the sponge sand mixture completely with just cornstarch. With my recipe, grandma's cake will be really delicious. I promise: You definitely won't have to dip it in coffee to eat it 😉
In the classic cake, the ingredients butter, sugar, flour and egg have the same weight. Old sand cake recipes usually do not use baking powder. For this, you had to stir for hours 😉 . This sand dough is a little "lighter" due to the baking powder - and the higher flour strength amount concerning fat and sugar.
How to make the Sand Cake
Start by greasing a small loaf pan (about 8 in / 20 cm) and dust with flour. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C. Now beat the soft butter with the sugar for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and mix well. Mix flour with starch and baking powder. Add to the egg mixture briefly but vigorously, alternating with the milk and lemon juice. Use enough milk, so the dough falls from the spoon with difficulty tearing.
After that, pour the dough into the pan, smooth it out and bake for about 50 minutes. Test with chopsticks. In the end, after 30 minutes of baking, score the cake lengthwise down the center with a large sharp knife.
Top Tip
To moisten the easy cake, don't leave it in the oven too long. Nevertheless, the chopstick test is, of course, important.
Recipe Card
Sand Cake
Equipment
- 1 Loaf Pan (8 in / 20 cm)
Ingredients
- 200 grams (1 cup) butter, soft
- 110 grams (1 cup) powdered sugar
- 3 eggs, medium
- 130 grams (1 cups) cornstarch
- 100 grams (⅘ cup) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 40 milliliters (2 ¾ tablespoons) milk, coarse
- 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Grease a small loaf pan (about 8 in / 20 cm) and dust with flour. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.
- Beat the soft butter with the sugar for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and mix well. Mix flour with starch and baking powder. Add to the egg mixture briefly but vigorously, alternating with the milk and lemon juice. Use enough milk, so the dough falls from the spoon with difficulty tearing.
- Pour the dough into the pan, smooth it out and bake for about 50 minutes. Test with chopsticks. After 30 minutes of baking, score the cake lengthwise down the center with a large sharp knife.
Notes
- You can refine the sand cake with spices like vanilla or cinnamon or add raisins, chocolate chips, apple cubes, or similar.
- You can also replace the milk with rum.
- For a lemon sand cake, replace even more milk with lemon juice and add lemon zest.
Ingredient substitutions
Variations
The sand cake with cornstarch can be easily modified. I partially replace the milk for the dough with lemon juice. Combined with some grated lemon juice, it becomes a delicious lemon sand cake. You can add rum, spices like vanilla or cinnamon, raisins, chocolate chips, etc. Or make apple pie out of the sand mixture.
Finally, to all sand cake fans among you, I would like to show you alternatives to grandma's rubbed cake: How about moist banana cake or marble cake, for example?
About Kathrin & Jan
It's like a little miracle to me every time. Seemingly simple ingredients are made into something that can brighten up your life. Butter, sugar, eggs, and flour melt into an airy biscuit, a fine tart, a juicy cake, or a crispy biscuit. Baking simply makes you happy. Welcome and enjoy our blog!
Kathrin & Jan
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