Country cooks in Australia have always been famous for their sponge cakes. It was a matter of great pride in the bush if your sponge cake always rose the highest and was the lightest in the district. And you always guarded your secrets jealously and handed them down to your daughter when she married and left home (well, maybe you did).

• 4 eggs. 
• ¾ cup caster sugar - fine granulated sugar.
  
• 1 cup self-raising flour.
• 1 level tablespoon cornflour.
  
• 1 heaped teaspoon butter dissolved in 4 tablespoons of boiling water.
• 2 sponge sandwich tins (20cm by 4 cm).
  

1. Grease the cake tins with butter - add a tiny pinch of flour to the butter to make sure that a good crust will form on the sides and bottom of the cake. Some cooks also put a small circle of greased paper in the bottom of the tin to stop the cake sticking in the centre.
   
2. Whip the eggs with a rotary beater for a few minutes until they are light and frothy. Do not use your food processor - it won't give enough aeration - this is vital!
   
3. Sprinkle the sugar over the mixture, about 1 tablespoon at a time, and when all the sugar has been added, continue to beat the mixture until it is very thick. This could take up to 10 minutes - good for your fitness level!
   
4. Sift the flour and cornflour together on some paper and then gradually add it to the eggs using your hand or a metal whisk.
   
5. Stir through the hot water and butter mixture quickly and pour into the prepared tins.
   
6. Bake in a moderately hot oven for about 25 minutes. The test to see if the cakes are baked is when they are springy to the tips of the fingers and when they shrink a little away from the sides of the tins.
   
7. Remove them from the oven and let them stand for a minute before tipping them out onto a cake cooling rack.
   
8. The traditional method of decorating these cakes is to spread strawberry or plum jam on the top of one cake, placing the other on the top of it like a sandwich, and then coating the whole thing with butter cream or whipped cream.
   
9. Another way that I like is to mix tinned black cherries and their juice into whipped cream and coating the cake sandwich with that mixture. 
10. If your sponge cake sinks in the middle, fill the hollow with whipped cream, and no one will notice!!!