Sunday Afternoon Baking: Victoria Sponge

The humble Victoria Sponge is a British baking icon, and has been since the 1850s where the cake was rumoured to originate from.

The story tells of Anna, the Duchess of Bedford, creating this cake in the era of Queen Victoria for an afternoon treat. The tradition has lived on strong as us Brits still enjoy a slice of this sponge with our afternoon tea on a regular basis. It must be the simplicity and universal appeal of the sweetened cream and jam between two layers of soft and moist sponge.

Although you can buy Victoria Sponges from the shops around London, it is far more satisfying to make your own. It’s a simple recipe that doesn’t need any exotic ingredients and doesn’t involve any lengthy and unnecessary processes.

Ingredients

If you want to make your own Victoria then you’ll need to pick up the following ingredients. You might want to half these for a small cake, or double them for something a lot bigger that’ll feed a large group of people. Who says this cake has to be for tea? You can use it as a celebratory cake if you make it big enough!

• 200g plain flour
• 200g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 200g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract (natural ideally)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 200g double cream
• 50g icing sugar (and a little more for dusting)
• 100g of good quality jam

Compared to a lot of bakes this ingredients list is fairly straight forward, and that is everything you will need to make the sponge batter and the filling.

Preparation

Making the sponge mix is also just as easy. You only need some scales, cake tines, a large mixing bowl and a mixer of some sort. Start by creaming the sugar and butter together in the bowl. It is best to make sure the butter is at room temperature or it’ll be hard to get a smooth consistency. From here add half of the flour and half of the eggs and continue to mix. Once this has been incorporated you add the rest of the flour and eggs with a teaspoon of vanilla and baking powder. You’ll create a lighter sponge if you keep on mixing and getting as much air into the mixture as possible. You can’t really over-mix the batter so just keep going as long as you feel necessary.

Spoon the mixture into two cake tins evenly and make sure they are flat. The tins can be of any size you want, but something of about 20cm in circumference is ideal. Once these have been prepared it is time to put them in the oven for around 20 minutes at 180 degrees. They will go golden when done and come away slightly from the edge of the tin. You can prod a knife in and if it comes out clean you know it is done. Leave them out for a couple of minutes before removing them from the tin to cool on a rack.

Cooling & Decorating

It is important to let the sponge cool before it is decorated or the cream will just melt. Let them cool completely on a wire rack to stop the bottom from getting soggy. This should take an hour or so if your room is cool.

Whilst this is happening you can start on making the cream filling for the centre of the cake. Just whisk up the cream with a little more vanilla and the icing sugar. Keep mixing up the cream stiffens up and forms a peak. You can generously spoon this on top one of the sponges with a layer of jam and then sandwich it with the other cake. Finish it off by dusting some icing sugar on top.

Afternoon Tea

Enjoy a slice of this cake with a cup of Earl Grey tea and some cucumber sandwiches which you can make with a little cream cheese if you wish. The sandwiches should be cut into points and have the crusts removed. The cake and sandwiches will make a lovely afternoon tea for you and your friends, and the effort of making your own sponge will go down really well.

We live in a busy world, but these small luxuries are still in our reach, and you’ll find preparing a simple cake like this extremely therapeutic.

Amongst other things, Steve Hutton is the office baker for Nationwide Vehicle Contracts.

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