vanilla sponge cake
- noun
- /vəˈnɪlə spʌndʒ keɪk/
- For her birthday, she requested a vanilla sponge cake with fresh strawberries and cream.
Examples
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She baked a vanilla sponge cake for the party.
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The bakery is known for its soft and fluffy vanilla sponge cake.
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After dinner, we shared a slice of homemade vanilla sponge cake.
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I love vanilla sponge cakes with fresh strawberries.
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For dessert, I enjoyed a slice of vanilla sponge cake topped with fresh strawberries.
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The birthday party featured a beautiful vanilla sponge cake decorated with colorful icing.
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She baked a vanilla sponge cake using her grandmother's recipe for the family celebration.
Synonyms
A light, airy cake that uses eggs, flour and sugar without butter or oil
How Light
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward composition: 'cake' (a sweet baked item) modified by 'sponge' (denoting a light, airy texture/type) and 'vanilla' (the flavor). A B1 learner who knows these constituents can readily infer it is a light, airy cake flavored with vanilla, so the meaning is directly compositional and cross-linguistically transparent.
Etymology
Vanilla sponge cake is named for what you taste and how it feels. The word vanilla points to the sweet vanilla flavor from the bean, and sponge shows the cake is light and soft with many small holes like a kitchen sponge, so the name tells you it is 'a light, airy cake' flavored with vanilla.