Cakes
Victoria Sponge
This is the cake the very first technical challenge was built on, and the one Jana is going to judge me on first. It is Mary Berry’s all-in-one method: everything into one bowl, mixed until it just comes together, and no more. The jam is made from scratch while the sponges bake, and the buttercream is piped rather than spread, which is the part that separates a neat cake from a homely one.
Based on Mary Berry’s Victoria Sponge from The Great British Bake Off, written out in my own words with the weights I actually use.
Recipe by Garrett (Bear)Victoria Sponge
A light all-in-one Victoria sponge with quick raspberry jam and piped vanilla buttercream. The classic British bake, and the tent’s first technical.
I have not made this yet. The quantities and timings are my starting point and may change once I have. If you make it first, tell me how it went in the reviews.
Ingredients
For the sponge
For the jam
For the buttercream
Equipment
- 2 x 20cm sandwich tins
- Baking paper
- Electric mixer
- Small deep saucepan
- Potato masher
- Piping bag with a plain nozzle
- Cooling rack
- Clean tea towel
Method
- Heat the oven and line the tins. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Rub a little butter around the inside of two 20cm sandwich tins and drop a circle of baking paper into the base of each. Oven: 180°C (160°C fan) / 350°F
- Everything in one bowl. Crack the eggs into a large bowl. Add the caster sugar, self-raising flour, baking powder and the soft butter.
- Mix, then stop. Beat until it just comes together into a smooth batter, then stop. Overmixing knocks the air out. Lift the beater: the batter should fall off in a slow, soft blob, what the books call dropping consistency.
- Divide and level. Split the batter evenly between the two tins. Weigh them if you want them identical. Scrape the bowl out with a spatula and gently level the tops.
- Bake. Bake on the middle shelf for 25 minutes. Keep the door shut. Look through the glass at 20 minutes, but do not open it. Oven: 180°C (160°C fan) / 350°F
- Make the jam while they bake. Tip the raspberries into a small, deep saucepan and crush them with a masher. Add the jam sugar and warm over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Turn the heat up and boil hard for 4 minutes. Pour into a shallow dish, leave to cool, then chill until set.
- Check and turn out. The sponges are done when they are golden, pulling away from the sides of the tins, and spring back when pressed. Leave them in the tins for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and turn them out onto a cooling rack.
- The tea towel trick. To turn a sponge out without rack marks on the top, lay a clean tea towel over the tin, put your hand on the towel, flip the tin so the cake lands on your hand, then turn it onto the rack top side up. Cool completely.
- Buttercream. Beat the 100g of butter in a large bowl until soft and pale. Beat in half the icing sugar until smooth, then the rest with one tablespoon of the milk, until creamy. Add the second tablespoon only if it is too stiff to pipe. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.
- Assemble. Pick the sponge with the better top and set it aside. Put the other one top side down on a plate, spread the jam over it, then pipe the buttercream over the jam. Sit the second sponge on top, top side up, and sprinkle with caster sugar.
Baker's notes
Butter has to be properly soft or the batter will not come together in one bowl. Take it out of the fridge an hour ahead, or cube it and give it ten minutes in a warm kitchen.
Storage + make ahead
Best on the day. Keeps for two days in a tin at room temperature; the jam softens the sponge as it sits.
Substitutions
No jam sugar: use 250g caster sugar plus the juice of half a lemon and boil a minute or two longer. No raspberries: 6 tbsp of good shop-bought raspberry jam, no cooking needed.
ricottabear.com/victoria-sponge · Metric
Reviews + questions
Nothing yet. Bake it and be the first to judge, or ask me anything about it.