As a means for effectively utilizing a fermentation residue (cake), the present invention provides a method which comprises removing impurities from an alcoholic extract of a cake using a nonsolvent for free ceramides, such as hexane or acetone, and further extracting the residue with an alcohol again. The invention also provides a method for obtaining a sphingolipid containing free ceramides including, in particular, human-type free ceramides, which are highly rare in nature, and having a large free ceramide content of 3% or greater, even 90% or greater in some cases, and the sphingolipid thus obtained.
