Did you know that the Victoria Sponge Cake is named after Queen Victoria? Supposedly, Victoria, who reigned as the Queen of Great Britain from 1837 to 1901, liked to have a slice of this cake with her afternoon tea. Certainly her 5o inch girth in her later years seems to support this rumor!
Victoria Sponge Cake, or Victoria Sandwich Cake as it is often called, is a light and airy cake. It is filled with a layer of strawberry or raspberry jam and often cream or buttercream. In Queen Victoria’s time the sponge would only have been filled with jam. It was only in the 20th Century that the addition of cream or buttercream became more commonplace.
Ask almost anyone who bakes in England and they will have their favorite Victoria Sponge recipe. Some use butter, some use margarine, some use a creaming method and some an all-in-one method, some dust the top of the cake with icing sugar (powdered sugar) and some dust the top with caster sugar (superfine sugar). The making of the sponges can be extremely sensitive, so sensitive in fact, it is rumored that some oven manufactures will test their oven temperatures by baking a Victoria Sponge.
I made three versions of Victoria Sponge Cake yesterday. The first was from a recipe that appears in my 1920’s cookery book ‘Mrs Beeton’s All-About Cookery’. The recipe requires melted butter and also whisking the egg whites and folding these into the rest of the ingredients. It was a fiddly recipe to be honest and in my opinion wasn’t worth the effort.
The second version, I’d rather not discuss. All you need to know is that it resembled a pancake and ended up in the bin!
Finally, the last sponge that I made (the one that is detailed below), came out really well. It just happens that it is the recipe that I used to make when I was at school. I used butter, I used an all-in-one method and I also used a hand whisk rather than a stand mixer. I filled the cake with buttercream and strawberry jam. Obviously you could use a different jam if you prefer and you could use fresh cream rather than buttercream. Whichever way you decide to fill your Victoria Sponge Cake, I hope that you enjoy it!
- Prep Time: 1h
- Cook Time: 30m
- Total Time: 1h 30m
- Serves: 8
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 225 grams golden caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- 225 grams self raising flour (or all purpose flour + a total of 2.5 tsp of baking powder)
- 1 teaspoon level baking powder
- 4 large eggs
- 225 grams softened butter or margarine
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the filling
- 140 grams softened butter
- 280 grams sifted icing sugar (powdered sugar) plus a little more for dusting.
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons strawberry jam
Instructions
For the cakes
- Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C Fan / Gas Mark 4 / 350F
- Lightly grease the sides and base of two 8 inch round cake tins. Line the bottom of the cake tins with a circle of baking parchment.
- Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar, butter and vanilla extract and sift in the flour and baking powder.
- Using an electric hand mixer, mix the ingredients until they are combined. The mixture needs to be fully combined but you also need be careful not to over mix it.
- Separate the mixture between the two cake tins. Gently spread the mixture to cover the bottom of the tin. Don’t be too heavy handed as this may effect the rise.
- Place the tins onto the middle shelf of your oven and bake for 25 minutes. DO NOT open the oven for the first 20 minutes of baking as this will definitely effect the rise of the cakes.
- Remove the cakes from the oven once they are golden, the cake has pulled away from the sides slightly and a skewer poked in to the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Leave the cakes in their tins for five minutes before turning out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the buttercream
- Place the softened butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sifted icing sugar, vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of milk. Beat until the buttercream is pale, soft and smooth. You can add another tablespoon of milk to the icing to make it softer if needed.
Putting it together
- Once the cakes are completely cooled, place one half of the cake top down onto your serving plate and using a spatula, spread the jam over the middle of the cake, right up the the edge.
- Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag with a plain nozzle, and pipe the buttercream over the top of the jam. If you do not want to pipe the butter cream it may be easier for you to spread the butter cream on one half of the sponge and the jam on the other half and carefully place them together, so that you don’t just get a jammy buttercream mess!
- Place the other half of the sponge cake on top of the butter cream and sprinkle over a bit of icing sugar on top for decoration.