Victoriana: An ode to the Victoria Sponge

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I’ve been quiet for a little while, chiefly because I went through a (two week) phase where I didn’t feel like making or eating (shock horror!) cake.
Back in the saddle again…

My reawakening in cake form has come in the guise of Victoria Sponge.
This little number has a few different names. To the Americans, it’s Pound Cake. To the French, Quartre Quarts (literally four quarters). And in England, its Victoria Sponge.
I don’t know if Queen Victoria had anything to do with it, but it is certainly a regal kind of cake. Moist, rich, golden, and luscious.
Or maybe the elitist English just like to obscure in the cake’s name what the French and Americans put right out there. The recipe.
It’s too simple. Pound cake: put in a pound of each ingredient. Quartre Quarts: There is four ingredients.
What have all (real) (and when I say Real, I am excluding the egg, gluten, sugar, and generally ingredients free types) cakes got in them?
Flour. (Well, self raising).
Butter.

Eggs.
Sugar.

Now, admittedly, a pound (or about 500g) of each makes a hell of a large piece of sweet comestible, but you get the picture. The secret is equal quantities of each.

I knew about the Victoria Sponge as a consequence of the immortal line of Helen Mirren in Calendar Girls, which said something like: if it’s a really important occasion, you should get yours from Marks and Spencer. Fair advice to the uninitiated.

I was actually initiated, however via the book Cake Chic by Peggy Porschen, she who made Stella McCartney’s wedding cake and assays some of the best sugar flower and piping action in the business. Victoria Sponge is a classic, stable (unless you open the oven door) cake which can replace the ubiquitous chocolate or traditional fruitcake insides of a sugarpasted cake. And its really very delicious in its buttery sweet simplicity.

The method is simple. Weigh ALL the ingredients so that they are completely equal. This means everything depends on the weight of your (broken) eggs. Cream the butter and sugar, beat in eggs, stir in self raising flour until combined. You can put in flavouring like vanilla or lemon zest if you like, or remove some of the flour and replace it by weight with cocoa. Put in oven 180 degrees C, DO NOT open door. Like any other spongecake, this sucker will fall faster than Newton’s proverbial apple if you interrupt its even temperature while baking. But curiously, though its called a sponge, it is actually quite a dense, medium crumbed cake. Perfect for sugarpaste, but not what most people think of as sponge per se.

However, there are subtleties. For a cake which is going to be richly iced, and layered with sweet things like jam, actually, margarine is better than butter. Less cloying. Some ladies swear that the ideal is half and half butter and marg. I am unconvinced on this in general. I go with butter unless I am making petits fours, which are buttercreamed, jammed, and dipped in fondant icing. The marg cake somehow carries all this sweetness better than the butter one.

More interesting though is what happens when you don’t just mix in the flour, but let your standing mixer beat it on high speed for a few minutes. That’s when the real sponge part starts to emerge. Beat the buggery out of the thing (a technique I learned from the Betty Crocker cookbook – which does sensationally fluffy, high rising cakes), and the baked mixture does come out far more sponge-like. Perhaps this is what Marks and Spencer do.

I have made simply HEAPS of this recipe over the past year or so. It layers up with jam and marscapone for a new take on the traditional jam and cream sponge.
Naked Victoria Sponge Celebration Cake

It makes brilliant marble cake.

Chocolate Marble Handbag and Shoes Cake

It takes on ground pistachios and makes them its own.

Double Pistachio Victoria Sponge Cupcakes


It gobbles up coconut.

Coconut Victoria Sponge

And recently, it made a new friend: the Blood Orange.

Boozy Blood Orange Cake

Boozy Blood Orange Syrup Layer Cake

The cake below makes a 10cm square cake, so if you want to make a 20cm cake, you need to multiply this by three.

Blood orange cake

ingredients

2 eggs – break them and weigh them – its about 50g each, but check!
about 100g unsalted butter, softened (weight corresponds to total weight of eggs)
about 100g caster sugar (weight corresponds to total weight of eggs)
about 100g self-raising flour (weight corresponds to total weight of eggs) 
zest of one blood orange
zest of one blood orange
juice of two blood oranges (measure the juice)
about 1/2 cup sugar (use the same amount of sugar as you have juice)
1 tbsp Grand Marnier (or other orange liqueur, or vodka)

mixing

Beat butter and sugar together until very light and creamy. Add orange zest and 1/2 tsp of vanilla bean powder (or 1 tsp vanilla essence). Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Sift in flour, and beat for at least 2 minutes. Life is easier with a standing mixer rather than a hand held beater.
Line a baking tin with bake paper. Spoon the mixture into the tin (it is quite thick) and smooth the surface. Bang the tin a few times against the bench to help settle the mixture and remove any air bubbles.

Bake approximately 50 minutes at 160 degrees Celsuis for a 10cm cake. (A 20 cm cake takes around 1 hr 10 min). DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN for the first 40 minutes at least. The cake is done when quite golden and risen (the top may crack), and a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, make the blood orange syrup.

Squeeze two blood oranges and weigh the juice. Add the same weight of sugar. Add a drop or two of orange oil (or a tsp of zest if you can’t get orange oil). Heat the mixture, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring to boil once sugar is dissolved. Boil 1 minute then remove from the heat. When syrup has cooled slightly, add the liqueur or vodka. 

While the cake is still hot, pierce it all over with a skewer, then brush about half the warm syrup over the cake, letting the syrup soak into the cake between brushings.
 
Let the cake cool completely then split into three or four layers.

Blood Orange Cream Cheese Buttercream

triple the quantity for a 20cm cake

ingredients

75g cream cheese, softened
75g unsalted butter, softened
300g icing sugar, sifted
remainder of the blood orange syrup

mixing

Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy. Add the icing sugar and beat until light and very fluffy. Add syrup, beat until well combined.

If you had three layers of cake, divide mixture into thirds and spread over each layer, or divide the mixture into quarters for four layers. 
Sandwich the layers together, and spread the remainder on the top of the cake. Decorate with more grated blood orange rind. Refrigerate the cake until the buttercream has set, or it will ooze when you try to cut it.

Toffee encrusted Blood Orange Cake

Hi Cakeophile! Tell me what you think!