Paradise sponge cake bars: the recipe for a delicious dessert

The paradise sponge cake bars are slices of soft sponge cake delicately filled with cream and condensed milk. They are an healthier and genuine dessert, that can be made at home in just a few steps. Accompanied with a glass of milk or a good fruit juice, they are very good for the snack of the little ones (and not only).

How to make paradise sponge cake bars

Prepare the condensed milk: collect all the ingredients in a saucepan and mix well (1), then put on a very low heat and cook, stirring often, for about 1 hour. As soon as the milk has reduced and taken on a slightly amber color, transfer it to a jar and keep it in the refrigerator.

Prepare the sponge cake: work the soft butter with the sugar until you have a soft and frothy cream (2).

Beat the whole eggs and the yolks, then gently pour them a little at a time into the butter cream (3).

Add the flour, mix with the yeast, and mix gently and with movements from top to bottom to avoid dismantling the mixture (4).

Pour the mixture into a well-buttered square pan (23 cm each side) and bake in a preheated oven at 175 degrees C for about 45 minutes (static mode) (5).

After the cooking time, take the cake out of the oven and let it cool (6).

Prepare the filling: whip the fresh cream, then pour the condensed milk (7) and continue to work everything.

When the cake is very cold, cut it in half (8) and cut two layers.

Put a layer in the cake pan, lined with parchment paper (9).

Pour the cream and level well with a spatula (10).

Cover with the second layer (11) and let it rest in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours.

After the rest time, take out the cake from the cake mold  and cut it into about 8 slices. Sprinkle with a little icing sugar and serve (12).

Tips

If you don’t have much time, you can also use ready-made condensed milk. In case you decide to do it at home, prepare it first: the condensed milk, in fact, needs about an hour of cooking and, once ready, it will be used very cold. With the indicated doses you will get a quantity slightly higher than that needed to fill the cake. You can pour the remaining one into a jar and keep it in the refrigerator for at least 15 days.

In the preparation of the sponge cake it is important that eggs and butter are both at room temperature: if they were not, the cream would not come out good. However to check the sponge cake cooking, before taking it out of the oven, do the toothpick test: once inserted in the center of the cake, it must come out dry. For a variant without yeast, you can also try the recipe for this other sponge cake.

To speed up the rest time, once the cake is filled, you can put it in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours, as indicated in the recipe, or alternatively transfer it to the freezer for 2 hours.

For the paradise sponge cake bars you must use a 23 cm square cake mold; with these doses you will obtain about 8 slices.

You can also prepare the bars in advance and keep them in the refrigerator or freeze them already portioned into slices: in this way you will always have them available for a last-minute snack.

Variants

As an alternative to the filling based on cream and condensed milk, you can fill your cake with a chocolate ganache or, for an even more delicious version, you can prepare the paradise cocoa sponge cake.

Preservation

The paradise sponge cake bars can be kept in the refrigerator for a maximum of 2-3 days, covered with a sheet of transparent film or, alternatively, placed in a special airtight container.