Milton Abbas Victoria Sponge – a British cake hit

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 250 g butter
• 250 g sugar
• 1 tsp, heaped vanilla sugar (preferably homemade)
• 4 eggs (size M)
• 250 g flour
• 1 packet of baking powder
• 1 tbsp, leveled cornstarch
• some milk or water, if necessary
• e.g. cream (buttercream or clotted cream) or stiffly whipped cream
• e.g. powdered sugar
• possibly cream stiffener
• e.g. jam (strawberry jam), not too sweet or fresh fruit

Instructions

Working time approx. 35 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 55 minutes

the recipe is said to be about 180 years old

Preheat the oven to 175°C (fan assisted oven). Line two springform pans, approximately 20 cm in diameter, with baking paper. Then clamp the paper to the sides of the pan. Do not grease the edges; the cake will be loosened later with a sharp knife. Now beat the butter with sugar and vanilla sugar until the consistency is nice and fluffy. Then add the eggs one at a time and beat well – 1 minute per egg – this is important for the cake to rise! Now add the flour mixed with the starch and baking powder all at once, carefully mix in with a hand mixer, and if necessary, add milk or water to soften the batter a little if it has become too firm and sticky. Divide the batter between the two springform pans, smooth it out, and place in the oven. After about 20 minutes, do the skewer test and continue baking until the batter no longer sticks to the skewer. Once the cake comes out of the oven, let it rest for about 5 minutes before loosening it from the edge with a sharp, pointed knife and removing it from the pan. The baking paper can be easily removed. It can then be placed on a wire rack to cool. There are several options for the filling: You can either spread buttercream about a finger’s thickness on one of the cakes, or use clotted cream, or alternatively, cream (preferably with over 30% fat content and whipped with a little powdered sugar and cream stiffener). Then spread the strawberry jam on top, place the second cake on top, and dust with powdered sugar. Another variation I was told could be fresh fruit instead of jam—depending on the season. I’ve started pre-cutting the “lid” into individual pieces, which I then place on top one at a time. This allows the sponge to be portioned out neatly and appetizingly at the table, and it doesn’t slump together when cut! This recipe was dictated to me by a friendly British housewife at the “Milton Abbas Street Fair 2011” – the cakes she offered were simply delicious!