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Victoria Sponge cake
Ingredients for a 20cm cake
- 4 eggs *
- unsalted butter, softened *
- caster sugar *
- self-raising flour *
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp natural vanilla extract
- a little milk, if needed
Method
1. Set the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and position a shelf in the centre of the oven. Grease the cake tin carefully with a scrap of butter. Cut a cake tin shape over some baking parchment and place it in the tin.
2. Stand all the eggs (still in their shells) on the weighing scales and make a note of their total weight. Weigh the same amount of butter and put it in the mixing bowl. Using the back of the wooden spoon, beat it until very soft.
3. Weight out the caster sugar and add it to the butter a third at a time, beating with the wooden spoon to blend the butter and sugar together. After a little while, you'll notice that the mixture becomes quite fluffy. Weigh out the flour, add the pinch of salt to it and set aside.
4. Break one of the eggs into the butter mixture and beat it quite hard until it is completely blended it. Add the other eggs in the same way, one at a time. Sift in a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg. Stir in the vanilla extract.
5. Set the sieve over the mixing bowl and tip all the flour into the sieve. Shake it gently into the bowl.
6. With the tablespoon, start to "fold" the flour into the cake mixture, using an up-and-ver turn of the spoon like a paddle.
7. When the flour has been folded in, test the consistency of the mixture - whether it's stiff or sloppy. Scoop up a tablespoon of mix and turn it upside down over the bowl. If it drops down reasonably easily, then the mix is just right. If it sits stubbornly in the spoon, fold in a tablespoon or two of milk just to ease up the mixture a little.
8. Spoon the mixture in the cake tin and gently smooth the top with a knife. Put the caked in the preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.
9. The cakes are ready when you can stick a knife or a skewer into the centre and it comes out clean. Take the cake out of the oven and leave it to cool for a few minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen it from the tin and turn it out on to the wire rack. Leave to cool completely.
10. You can cut in half your cake and fill it with whipped double cream and jam, or you can also combine crema pasticcera and fresh fruit for decoration.
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