In 1840, Anna Maria Russell, one in every of Queen Victoria’s girls in ready and the seventh Duchess of Bedford, reportedly skilled “a sinking feeling” in the course of the lengthy hours between lunch and dinner. The treatment? A cup of tea, some sandwiches, and a slice of cake—a lightweight meal now known as afternoon tea. Just like the Duchess, I additionally expertise a sinking feeling within the afternoons; after I lived and studied within the UK, my pals and I regularly scurried off from the varsity  library searching for tea and cake or scones within the afternoons. We frequently sat all the way down to slices of Victoria sponge, a basic British dessert and afternoon tea standby that consists of strawberry jam and whipped cream between two tender sponge muffins calmly dusted with powdered sugar. Although I now not dwell in Britain, the cake remains to be one in every of my favourite desserts, and one I typically make for family and friends for tea time or an after-dinner deal with.

A Temporary Historical past of Victoria Sponge

Also called the Victoria sandwich, the cake is known as after Queen Victoria, who reportedly loved the dessert day by day as a part of her afternoon tea, in response to Buckingham Palace, amongst different sources. Alysa Levine, creator of Cake: A Slice of Historical past, notes that the Victoria sponge has its roots in pound cake, or what the French name “quatre quarts.” Which means “4 fourths,” the title refers back to the equal components of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs used to arrange basic pound cake. Pound cake took off within the 18th century, when commerce and industrialization meant that rich Victorians had entry to sophisticated white flour and granulated sugar. Chemist Alfred Chook’s invention of baking powder in 1843, together with the growing recognition of the whisk, made it a lot simpler for cooks to whip up airier muffins.

Although most iterations of Victoria sponge at this time have a layer of whipped cream and strawberry jam, there was no whipped cream within the earliest variations of the dessert. A recipe for Victoria sponge in Matilda Marian Pullan’s 1854 The Trendy Housewife’s Receipt E book requires apricot or raspberry jam as a filling, whereas Isabella Mary Beeton’s 1867 The Englishwoman’s Cookery E book instructs cooks to make use of “any sort of jam or marmalade.”

It wasn’t till the late 1900s that whipped cream began showing in recipes with regularity; much more unclear is when strawberry jam—and never different fruit preserves—grew to become the usual filling for the cake. Right now, the Victoria sponge stays in style in Britain, the place it’s so beloved that many think about it “greater than a cake” and “an emblem of nationwide identification,” Levine writes.

Right now’s Victoria Sponge

Many bakers put their very own spin on the cake: In her ebook Love Is a Pink Cake, pastry chef Claire Ptak prepares her Victoria sponge with brown sugar, which yields a moister cake. (At her Dalston, London bakery Violet Muffins, Ptak affords a extra conventional cake made with granulated sugar; she fills the cake with raspberry jam and whipped cream and dusts the cake with confectioners’ sugar and raspberry powder.) Fortnum and Mason, the British division retailer that dates again to the 18th century, affords their Victoria sponge with contemporary strawberries atop whipped cream. And at Peggy Porschen, one other London bakery, the Victoria sponge is sandwiched with a strawberry and elderflower purée and frosted with a lemon and vanilla buttercream. 

Like these bakers, I’ve put a slight twist on the dessert. The pound cake–like sponge of a basic Victoria sandwich is commonly too heavy for my liking, and the strawberry jam a contact too candy. So in my recipe beneath, I’ve opted for decent milk cake, a fluffy sponge with simply sufficient heft and construction to hold the jam and whipped cream. Seasoning the jam with contemporary lemon juice brings needed acidity, whereas calmly salting the whipped cream balances out all the dessert and prevents it from being cloying. I additionally brush the cake with a lemon easy syrup, which retains it moist. Is it probably the most conventional Victoria sponge? Maybe not. However it’s my ultimate model. Right here’s easy methods to make it.

5 Ideas for Making the Greatest Victoria Sponge

Line your cake pans with parchment, then grease and flour your pans. To forestall your cake from sticking to the underside of the pan, I like to recommend lining the underside with parchment paper. Greasing the paper and sides of the pan with butter and calmly dusting the pans with flour creates a barrier that forestalls the fats from melting immediately into the cake batter, whereas additionally making it straightforward to prove as soon as it’s cooled.

Use a sizzling milk sponge cake. In contrast to muffins which might be made by beating room temperature butter and sugar collectively, the sizzling milk cake comes collectively by whisking complete eggs till pale and doubled in quantity, pouring in milk and fats (sometimes butter), then gently incorporating the dry substances. It’s simpler and sooner to arrange than a standard butter cake, and is simply as (if no more…) scrumptious. The cake will get loft from whipped complete eggs—which traps air bubbles that broaden because the batter bakes—and tenderness from the milk and liquid fats that coats the flour.

In my recipe beneath, I name for a impartial oil. In contrast to butter, which usually incorporates 80 to 82% butterfat, oil is 100% fats. In doughs and batters, fat coat the gluten proteins glutenin and gliadin, limiting gluten growth. As a result of oil is 100% fats, it extra successfully coats these proteins, making a lighter, fluffier cake.

Brush the cake with easy syrup. Among the best methods to forestall cake from drying out is to brush it with easy syrup, a trick I discovered as a pastry prepare dinner. Many easy syrups I discovered to make had a one to at least one ratio of water to sugar, however that always produces a thicker syrup that’s a lot too candy paired with an already candy cake. Right here, I take advantage of two components water to at least one half sugar, with a further tablespoon of contemporary lemon juice so as to add brightness. You need to brush simply sufficient syrup on the cake to assist moisten it, however keep away from soaking the cake utterly, as that may lead to a soggy crumb.

Season the strawberry jam with lemon juice. A tablespoon of lemon juice provides acidity to the jam; this prevents the jam from being excessively candy and in addition helps spotlight the flavour of the fruit.

Calmly salt the whipped cream. Is it actually essential to salt whipped cream? No. However is seasoned whipped cream extra scrumptious? Completely. As with nearly each different meals, each savory and candy, a contact of salt helps spherical out and improve the flavour of the whipped cream and the entire dessert.