Practice – GBBO 2010, Victoria Sandwich

Image | March 1, 2021March 1, 2021 | Gray

Victoria Sandwich

Mary Berry

Finished cake

Before I finalized my plans for this project, I was originally going to start at the very beginning. Finding that I had no easy way of watching the original 2 seasons, I ended up changing plans, but by that time, I’d already baked the first two recipes. This is the first, a challenge from Mary Berry for “Victoria Sandwich” aka Victoria Sponge.

It’s a simple 2 layer sponge cake, with buttercream icing and homemade raspberry jam, finished with confectioner’s sugar. Link to recipe.

For this recipe I didn’t require any new equipment. But I got some anyway: a set of nice 8″ round cake pans, and a set of cake pan strips, which help the cakes bake up with a nice flat top.

In this recipe we run into our first experiences with needing translate English to English. The recipe calls for “Self Rising flour”, which must be more common over there, as I couldn’t find any here. To recreate it, for every cup (120g) of flour, add 2 teaspoons baking powder, and ¾ teaspoon salt. Also, basically every kind of sugar has one name in the US and another in the UK: icing sugar = confectioner’s sugar or powdered sugar; caster sugar may be known as baking sugar; and finally what Brits call jam sugar, we apparently call “gelling sugar”. I couldn’t find any gelling sugar, and substituted an equal amount of caster sugar, adding ⅛ teaspoon pectin and a pinch of citric acid. When I finally made the jam, it didn’t set as well as I would have liked; if I were to do it again, I’d bump the pectin up to ¼ teaspoon.

Finally, with all the terms deciphered, it was time to make it!

This wasn’t terribly difficult, if you’ve ever made a cake, jam, and buttercream, there are no big surprises.

The layers fell a little bit, next time I would cool them upside down.

As I mentioned earlier, the jam did not set as well as I would like. Next time, if the jam was still too liquid, I would pipe a circle of buttercream around the edge of the layer, to make a dam for the jam. In addition, the recipe made WAY too much jam, I’d cut the amount in half.

Once assembled, it was time to taste:

A slice of Victoria Sponge — A slice of the finished cake.

Unfortunately, neither S. nor I were very impressed by this cake. The sponge itself looked nice, and had a decent flavor, but was not sweet enough, and was dry and somewhat crumbly. This could have been saved by the jam, but the jam was overpoweringly sweet, especially with the buttercream and extra confectioner’s sugar on top.

All in all, I don’t think I’d make this again, without heavy modification. Kids verdict: well, it all got eaten, and not tossed in the bin, so let’s call it a “satisfactory”.

S1E1 – Victoria Sponge Recipe

March 1, 2021 | Gray

Victoria Sponge

https://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/marys-victoria-sandwich/

For the sponge

4 eggs, large, free-range

225g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

225g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder (+1Tbl to recreate self-rising)

(¾ tsp salt to recreate self-rising)

225g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

For the jam

200g raspberries

250g jam sugar

For the buttercream

100g unsalted butter, softened

200g icing sugar, sifted

2 Tbl milk

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 180°C (356F). Grease and line 2 x 20cm(8”) sandwich tins(cake pans): use a piece of baking or silicone paper to rub a little baking spread or butter around the inside of the tins until the sides and base are lightly coated. Line the bottom of the tins with a circle of baking paper.

Step 2

Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl, then add the sugar, flour, baking powder and soft butter.

Step 3

Mix everything together until well combined. Be careful not to over-mix – as soon as everything is blended you should stop. The finished mixture should be of a soft ‘dropping’ consistency.

Step 4

Divide the mixture evenly between the tins. Use a spatula to remove all of the mixture from the bowl and gently smooth the surface of the cakes.

Step 5

Place the tins on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Don’t be tempted to open the door while they’re cooking, but after 20 minutes do look through the door to check them.

Step 6

While the cakes are cooking, make the jam. Place the raspberries in a small deep-sided saucepan and crush them with a masher. Add the sugar and bring to the boil over a low heat until the sugar has melted. Increase the heat and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and carefully pour into a shallow container. Leave to cool and chill to set.

Step 7

The cakes are done when they’re golden-brown and coming away from the edge of the tins. Press them gently to check – they should be springy to the touch. Remove them from the oven and set aside to cool in their tins for five minutes. Then run a palette or rounded butter knife around the inside edge of the tin and carefully turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack.

Step 8

To take your cakes out of the tins without leaving a wire rack mark on the top, put the clean tea towel over the tin, put your hand onto the tea towel and turn the tin upside-down. The cake should come out onto your hand and the tea towel – then you can turn it from your hand onto the wire rack. Set aside to cool completely.

Step 9

For the buttercream, beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add the remaining icing sugar and one tablespoon of the milk and beat the mixture until creamy and smooth. Add the remaining tablespoon of milk if the buttercream is too thick. Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.

Step 10

To assemble, choose the sponge with the best top, then put the other cake top-down onto a serving plate. Spread with the jam then pipe the buttercream on top of the jam. Place the other sponge on top (top-side up) and sprinkle with caster sugar to serve.

The Great British Baking Project: The “rules”