Tips from the Experts: Marion.

Adored Mum and Grandmother: Celebrated home cook. 

With a mixing spoon as worn as this, the lady must be taken seriously. Her fierce left hand can cream butter and sugar better than any machine.

Watching her bake is a joy. She's efficient, she's tidy and she doesn't bother measuring things exactly. She's so bloody clever that she doesn't need to. Mark us down as impressed.

The recipe is from a friend from a couple of decades ago and it's been making spot-on sponges regularly the whole time. It's written in her recipe notebook - so full and falling apart that only she would dare find the page it's on for fear of destroying the whole delicate, priceless artefact. The recipe doesn't mess about with melted butter or boiling water, the only flour it uses is cornflour and it requires that the cook separate the eggs.

Marion's tips for near-perfect sponges include:

• Use the biggest eggs you can buy. Grandma Carter used duck eggs, but any giant ones will do. If you're using eggs from your own chooks, give them a stern talking to about increasing their egg size.
• Make sure your eggs are room temperature, and separate them with the greatest of care. Broken yolks = unfathomable disaster.
• Beat eggs with handheld electric beaters. Standing there patiently is all a part of the ritual. Side note: the beaters are older than me, and have aged far more gracefully.
• Use a bowl with graduated sides. It's easier to fold in the flour.
• Scrape the edges and bottom of the bowl when folding in flour, and fold with a gentle and deliberate action, slowly spinning the bowl as you go.
• Weigh the two tins after dividing the mixture evenly to ensure perfectly equal halves. 
• Bang the tins a few times on the bench before putting them in the oven to remove the big bubbles.

Marion put the sponges in the oven for 15 minutes and we set about having a cup of tea. Like some sort of renegade, she opened the oven door when the timer went off, to see if they needed an extra 2 mins. After a quick and gentle prod with her forefinger it was decided they were ready. She expertly removed them from the tins onto a clean and pretty tea towel laid over the cooling rack. We promptly ate one half with our cuppa.

The verdict: feather-light and delicious with a fine, consistent texture.