Recently, I was having a WhatsApp conversation with my brother and we were both saying how are taking our first tentative steps into the land of YouTube videos! My brother mentioned that he was going to make some bread so I suggested he have a look at my video (for fun) and see what he thinks. He suggested I make a Victoria Sponge tutorial (that doesn’t sink in the middle)! So, this is what I have done!
It’s a simple cake that really is very easy to do. Most of the ingredients are probably already in your store cupboard which means no trekking out to the shops to find some obscure, seldom used ingredient. One of the best things about this cake is that you can absolutely dress it up or keep it simple – whatever the occasion calls for. My lovely friend, Jo often fills hers with whipped cream and fresh fruit. It really does look amazing!
Sponge cakes are thought of as one of the first non-yeasted cakes. The origins of this cake date back to 1843 when Alfred Bird, an English food manufacturer, used Baking Powder to enable his cakes to rise higher than those using egg as the raising agent alone.
It was around this same time that the ‘Teatime’ meal became fashionable. The long and the short of the story is that one of Queen Victoria’s ladies in waiting, couldn’t survive the time between lunch and dinner so took to having a cheeky ‘teatime’ snack. A woman after my own heart! In the end, she shared her guilty pleasure with her friends and once Queen Victoria was introduced to the idea, it seemed a marriage made in heaven – afternoon tea and sponge cake! We call it the Victoria Sponge as it was simply Queen Victoria’s favourite cake! Purists amongst you will note that there is quite a lot of artistic license in this little post. But, if you are interested in food history at all, there is loads of information on line and in the library to read and digest – while you eat and digest afternoon tea!