Classic Victoria Sponge
After working on a recipe to substitute this British classic afternoon cake, I felt duty bound to share with you the traditional recipe.
The Victoria sponge, also known as the Victoria sandwich or Victorian cake, was named after Queen Victoria, who was known to enjoy a slice of the sponge cake with her afternoon tea and subsequently this cake has become the quintessential English teatime treat.
The Victoria Sponge is traditionally sandwiched by strawberry or a raspberry jam or a fruit jam of your choice, and often a light vanilla butter cream, however, to take the cake to its ultimate level, one can also use whipped cream, jam and fresh soft fruit (strawberries or raspberries). It is also permissible to bake 3 sandwich cakes and have the final result 3 tiered (would need to bake up an extra half cake mixture – 2 eggs etc).
I will be honest, I have slightly tweaked the recipe in order to make it quicker to make (by placing all the ingredients in a bowl at once, and whizzing together by an electric whisk to form the delicious sponge (traditional method would be to cream the sugar and butter separately and then add the eggs and other ingredients etc).
FINALLY, and this is important, the best guideline when baking a Victoria Sponge is to crack open the eggs and weigh them first, and make sure that all the ingredients weigh exactly the same.
Happy baking and of course HAPPY TEA TIME.
Ingredients
-
4 eggs- weight approximately 200g
-
200g butter- softened
-
200g caster sugar
-
200g self raising flour- sifted
-
1 tsp baking powder
-
2 tbs milk- optional
-
Filling
-
Strawberry jam- or raspberry
Instructions
-
Prepare 2 x 20cm sandwich baking tins:
-
01 Lightly butter tins and line bases with non stick baking paper.
-
Prepare cake mixture:
-
02 In a bowl place ALL the ingredients and mix well either by using an electric hand whisk or standard electric mixer. Mixture must be smooth and aerated.
-
03 Divide cake mixture between the two sandwich tins, smoothing the top evenly for a flat even bake.
-
04 Bake in the oven until golden and firm to the touch.
-
05 Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly in the tin before turning out onto a wrack. Remove the baking paper.
-
06 When cold sandwich the cake together with delicious strawberry jam and a dusting of icing sugar on the top.
Notes
Important to have the butter at room temperature and to mix all the ingredients well before baking. Please note for this classic sponge, all the ingredients weigh the same i.e 4 eggs weigh 200g then all the other ingredients weigh 200g. If they weigh more, then adjust but the rule of thumb, is that all the cake ingredients weigh the same. The addition of the milk will lighten the sponge, so if you want a dense cake then omit but add for a lighter sponge.
