Victoria sponge
The classic English recipe by weight: equal butter, sugar, flour and eggs. Weigh the eggs in their shells and match everything else to that number — it works whether the eggs are small or large, which is why the recipe has survived more than a hundred and fifty years. The rest comes down to creaming the butter and sugar for a long time, because apart from the baking powder that is the only air this cake will get.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Batter 15 min
- Baking 25 min
- Cooling 40 min
- Assembly 10 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneCream the butter and sugar for five minutes
Beat the very soft butter with the sugar for a full 5 minutes, until almost white and visibly fluffy. This is not overkill — there is no whisked egg white in this cake, so apart from the baking powder all the aeration comes from this single step.
Ingredients: 230 g butter · 230 g caster sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 230 g plain flour · 2 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 2 tbsp milk · 1 pinch salt
Almost white and fluffy — only now the eggs.Add the eggs one at a time with a spoon of flour
Add the eggs one at a time, and with the third and fourth add a spoonful of flour from the weighed amount. The flour binds the water in the egg and stops the mixture curdling — and a curdled mixture loses the air you have just beaten in.
Ingredients: 230 g butter · 230 g caster sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 230 g plain flour · 2 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 2 tbsp milk · 1 pinch salt
Fold in flour and milk
Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt and fold it in with a spatula in three additions, finishing with the milk and vanilla. The batter should drop from a spoon in a heavy blob with a light shake — if it does not, add another spoonful of milk.
Ingredients: 230 g butter · 230 g caster sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 230 g plain flour · 2 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 2 tbsp milk · 1 pinch salt
Divide the batter by weight
Line two 20 cm tins and divide the batter by weight, not by eye. A 30 gram difference gives visibly uneven layers and a lopsided cake that no amount of cream will straighten.
Ingredients: 230 g butter · 230 g caster sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 230 g plain flour · 2 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 2 tbsp milk · 1 pinch salt
By weight — the eye is off by tens of grams.Bake 25 minutes at 180°C
Bake for 25 minutes, both tins on the same shelf. The sponges are done when they shrink from the sides and spring back under a finger. Do not open the oven before the twentieth minute — a sunken sponge will not rise again.
Ingredients: 230 g butter · 230 g caster sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 230 g plain flour · 2 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 2 tbsp milk · 1 pinch salt
Cool the layers completely
Wait 5 minutes in the tins, then turn out onto a rack and cool completely — about 40 minutes in all. A warm layer melts the cream within minutes and the filling runs out of the sides. This is the one step that cannot be rushed.
Ingredients: 230 g butter · 230 g caster sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 230 g plain flour · 2 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 2 tbsp milk · 1 pinch salt
Fill with jam and cream
Spread the bottom layer with jam right to the edges, whip the cream with icing sugar to soft peaks and spread it over the jam. Top with the second layer and dust with icing sugar. Serve the same day.
Ingredients: 200 g strawberry jam · 300 ml whipping cream (36%) · 30 g icing sugar
Jam to the edges, cream on top of the jam.
Before you start
The weigh-the-eggs method
Weigh four eggs in their shells — medium ones come to about 225 g. Match butter, sugar and flour to that. If the eggs are small and come to 200 g, or large and come to 260 g, scale the rest proportionally. It is error-proof and always works.
Jam only
The purist version is jam alone, no cream — that is what Women's Institute competitions traditionally require, and it keeps for two days. With cream the cake is better, but it becomes a dessert for one afternoon.
Why room temperature matters
A cold egg chills the creamed butter, which firms up — the mixture curdles and loses its air. If you forgot to take the eggs out of the fridge, sit them in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes.
