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I have been binge watching The Great British Baking Show this winter -- all seasons and the Christmas shows and it made me think I wanted to be a better baker.  It has inspired me to start a cake project and to begin with recipes in my grandmother’s handwritten cookbook.   One of the cakes they talk about all the time on The Great British Bake Off is a sponge.  While digging through those old family recipes one of the themes I noticed, was sponge cakes.  Now,  just to figure out how to make one -- a good one at that! What is a sponge cake? First of all -- what is a sponge cake?  I thought I knew, but apparently, my cake education was only about 6th grade.  I am past box mixes, but watching all of the baking shows I came to realize there are many different kinds of cakes besides, chocolate, white and a yellow butter cake. What I discovered is that the term “sponge” means different things to different cultures, there is a British version, French version, American version, Italian and so on….plus there are multiple types of sponges in each category.  My head is spinning just thinking about it.   So back to what is a sponge cake.  In the US sponges are light, sweet cakes using a high proportion of eggs and no fat.  Some depend only on the air created by beating the eggs or egg whites for the cake to rise, while others use some baking powder to do the leavening.  Texture tends to be soft and spongy like an Angel Food cake. Because they don’t have fat in them, they are lower in calories and dry out pretty quickly.  What has considered a sponge in the US  is a “foam” cake in the...