Victoria Sponge Cake Recipe

In 1840, Anna Maria Russell, considered one of Queen Victoria’s girls in ready and the seventh Duchess of Bedford, reportedly skilled “a sinking feeling” through the lengthy hours between lunch and dinner. The remedy? A cup of tea, some sandwiches, and a slice of cake—a lightweight meal now known as afternoon tea. Just like the Duchess, I additionally expertise a sinking feeling within the afternoons; after I lived and studied within the UK, my buddies and I ceaselessly scurried off from the varsity  library in quest of tea and cake or scones within the afternoons. We frequently sat right down to slices of Victoria sponge, a basic British dessert and afternoon tea standby that consists of strawberry jam and whipped cream between two tender sponge desserts flippantly dusted with powdered sugar. Although I now not stay in Britain, the cake remains to be considered one of my favourite desserts, and one I usually make for family and friends for tea time or an after-dinner deal with.

A Transient Historical past of Victoria Sponge

Also called the Victoria sandwich, the cake is called after Queen Victoria, who reportedly loved the dessert each day as a part of her afternoon tea, in keeping with Buckingham Palace, amongst different sources. Alysa Levine, writer of Cake: A Slice of Historical past, notes that the Victoria sponge has its roots in pound cake, or what the French name “quatre quarts.” Which means “4 fourths,” the identify refers back to the equal elements of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs used to organize basic pound cake. Pound cake took off within the 18th century, when commerce and industrialization meant that rich Victorians had entry to subtle white flour and granulated sugar. Chemist Alfred Chook’s invention of baking powder in 1843, together with the growing reputation of the whisk, made it a lot simpler for cooks to whip up airier desserts.

Although most iterations of Victoria sponge at this time have a layer of whipped cream and strawberry jam, there was no whipped cream within the earliest variations of the dessert. A recipe for Victoria sponge in Matilda Marian Pullan’s 1854 The Trendy Housewife’s Receipt E book requires apricot or raspberry jam as a filling, whereas Isabella Mary Beeton’s 1867 The Englishwoman’s Cookery E book instructs cooks to make use of “any form of jam or marmalade.”

It wasn’t till the late 1900s that whipped cream began showing in recipes with regularity; much more unclear is when strawberry jam—and never different fruit preserves—grew to become the usual filling for the cake. Right now, the Victoria sponge stays common in Britain, the place it’s so beloved that many take into account it “greater than a cake” and “an emblem of nationwide id,” Levine writes.

Right now’s Victoria Sponge

Many bakers put their very own spin on the cake: In her guide Love Is a Pink Cake, pastry chef Claire Ptak prepares her Victoria sponge with brown sugar, which yields a moister cake. (At her Dalston, London bakery Violet Truffles, Ptak affords a extra conventional cake made with granulated sugar; she fills the cake with raspberry jam and whipped cream and dusts the cake with confectioners’ sugar and raspberry powder.) Fortnum and Mason, the British division retailer that dates again to the 18th century, affords their Victoria sponge with recent strawberries atop whipped cream. And at Peggy Porschen, one other London bakery, the Victoria sponge is sandwiched with a strawberry and elderflower purée and frosted with a lemon and vanilla buttercream. 

Like these bakers, I’ve put a slight twist on the dessert. The pound cake–like sponge of a basic Victoria sandwich is commonly too heavy for my liking, and the strawberry jam a contact too candy. So in my recipe beneath, I’ve opted for warm milk cake, a fluffy sponge with simply sufficient heft and construction to hold the jam and whipped cream. Seasoning the jam with recent lemon juice brings needed acidity, whereas flippantly salting the whipped cream balances out your entire dessert and prevents it from being cloying. I additionally brush the cake with a lemon easy syrup, which retains it moist. Is it essentially the most conventional Victoria sponge? Maybe not. However it’s my preferrred model. Right here’s how you can make it.

5 Suggestions for Making the Finest Victoria Sponge

Line your cake pans with parchment, then grease and flour your pans. To forestall your cake from sticking to the underside of the pan, I like to recommend lining the underside with parchment paper. Greasing the paper and sides of the pan with butter and flippantly dusting the pans with flour creates a barrier that stops the fats from melting straight into the cake batter, whereas additionally making it straightforward to end up as soon as it’s cooled.

Use a scorching milk sponge cake. In contrast to desserts which can be made by beating room temperature butter and sugar collectively, the hot milk cake comes collectively by whisking entire eggs till pale and doubled in quantity, pouring in milk and fats (sometimes butter), then gently incorporating the dry elements. It’s simpler and quicker to organize than a conventional butter cake, and is simply as (if no more…) scrumptious. The cake will get loft from whipped entire eggs—which traps air bubbles that develop because the batter bakes—and tenderness from the milk and liquid fats that coats the flour.

In my recipe beneath, I name for a impartial oil. In contrast to butter, which generally incorporates 80 to 82% butterfat, oil is 100% fats. In doughs and batters, fat coat the gluten proteins glutenin and gliadin, limiting gluten improvement. As a result of oil is 100% fats, it extra successfully coats these proteins, making a lighter, fluffier cake.

Brush the cake with easy syrup. Among the finest methods to forestall cake from drying out is to brush it with easy syrup, a trick I discovered as a pastry prepare dinner. Many easy syrups I discovered to make had a one to at least one ratio of water to sugar, however that always produces a thicker syrup that’s a lot too candy paired with an already candy cake. Right here, I take advantage of two elements water to at least one half sugar, with an extra tablespoon of recent lemon juice so as to add brightness. You need to brush simply sufficient syrup on the cake to assist moisten it, however keep away from soaking the cake utterly, as that may end in a soggy crumb.

Season the strawberry jam with lemon juice. A tablespoon of lemon juice provides acidity to the jam; this prevents the jam from being excessively candy and in addition helps spotlight the flavour of the fruit.

Frivolously salt the whipped cream. Is it actually essential to salt whipped cream? No. However is seasoned whipped cream extra scrumptious? Completely. As with nearly each different meals, each savory and candy, a contact of salt helps spherical out and improve the flavour of the whipped cream and the entire dessert.