Sponge Cake

Classic Victoria Sponge Cake.

Ditch those mass-produced Victoria Sponge cakes – here’s how to make your own buttery, crumbly cake that even a Queen would be proud of!
A home-baked Victoria Sponge cannot be beaten by a factory-produced cake. Take a slice of a mass-produced sponge cake and slicing into its solid, aerated form you will notice that it doesn’t give away many of its crumbs. It is uniformly pale, its perfectly shaped discs sandwiched together with bright red strawberry jam, and sometimes synthetic cream.

Slice into a home-baked sponge and its bouncy layers and slightly domed top welcome you to take a bite into its eggy, sweet sponge. Fluffy crumbs tumble from the knife as you cut – all these visual effects make for better eating. Despite its pale, simple appearance it is very rich, containing more eggs than a usual sponge and almost an entire block of butter. For that reason it is well worth making your own and abandoning those supermarket versions held together with vegetable oil and emulsifiers.

The Victoria Sponge was the cake of choice for Queen Victoria, who reigned England from 1837 until her death in 1901, and the cake was given her name accordingly. A classic Victorian sponge cake contained jam and sometimes for the more decadent, cream. The cake is not traditionally iced. A sprinkling of caster or icing sugar over the top is the only addition to its already rich form. Mrs Beeton wrote a recipe for it in her “Book of Household Management” in 1861 (foodtimeline.org). In it she describes two layers of sponge cake sandwiched together with jam and then cut into “long finger-pieces” and served “on a glass dish”.
How to Make a Classic Victoria Sponge Cake

Ingredients

* 220g butter
* 220g caster sugar
* 4 medium eggs
* 220g self raising flour
* a drop of milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* around 6 tablespoons jam of your choice (raspberry, strawberry and blackcurrant all work well):