Victoria Sponge Cake: Origins
By Steve Long​
              ​Victoria Sponge cake is a staple in my family. Many birthdays and holidays or even just random days have been celebrated with this cake. In my house I live my two brothers, my mom, my dad, and also his mom, thus a lot of special days to celebrate, and hence much cake to be had. I’ve no complaints.
​              Our family's recipe comes from my mom’s side, specifically my mom’s, mom's branch of our family tree. That side of the family isn’t big on baking, so the responsibility for making this cake has fallen on my grandma on my dad’s side, who, I must say, I'm fortunate to have to live with us. I remember pretty vividly our first time trying it and wondering who ate the slice on my plate, and then who ate the second (it was me). If I remember correctly, the first slice ended up more in the lungs from inhaling it, but the second got a decent portion in the right place. ​
​              Other recipes of my grandma's include all the cookies: oatmeal, peanut butter, gingerbread, etc, also coffee cake and other breads, and many other awesome snacks. It’s great coming home after school some days to find she’d done some baking while we were all away, but obviously, it’s very hard to rival her Victoria Sponge cake.
​              The origin of this cake, as one might imagine, is with Queen Victoria herself. Sponge cakes had already been around at this time, marked by the spongy airy texture of the crumb; Queen Victoria often enjoyed this cake during ‘High tea’ time.
​              ​Some varieties of this cake were served with whipped cream or jam to the side or on top of the cake. These added a pleasing sweetness and contrasting texture, but Queen Victoria found it to be much too messy. From this, the idea of putting the cream and jam in between two slices stemmed, and this variant is now referred to as a Victoria Sponge cake.
​              ​In my family, we like to make a special change to this time-tested recipe. If adding a second layer has made this dish so much better, we’ve made the executive decision that more couldn’t possibly hurt. We’ve incremented the number of layers over the years, and have found that five can be slightly hard to control, thus we’ve landed on the number of four. My birthday is now within two weeks from the time of writing this. I’m very happy to say that I will most likely be enjoying this recipe on that day.
Ingredients (For two tins):
  • 4 eggs
  • 8 ounces sugar + extra to sprinkle
  • 8 ounces of self-rising flour
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 11½ ounces of soft butter
  • 7 ounces of sifted icing sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of milk
  • A liberal amount of seedless raspberry jam
  • Approximately a million raspberries
   Materials:
  • Decide just how much you love your family and use that many circular baking tins (2 minimum)(no more than 27, trust me)
  • Big mixing bowl
  • Another not-quite-so-impressive mixing bowl
  • Emotional support cheese stick (optional)
Instructions:
  1. Set the oven to 160 Celsius, or 180 if you doubt your oven's skill.
  2. Wash your hands (<--Please) and grease the tins with butter.
  3. Break the eggs in an unconventional manner into a large sturdy bowl and chase them down with your flour, sugar, 8 ounces of butter, and baking powder.
  4. Mix it lmao (Not too much, you want it to have a ‘dropping’ feel)
  5. Give your concoction some encouraging words. Use positive language -- swear words generally result in bizarre consistencies in the crumb.
  6. Eyeball it equally into your tins, and try to remember where you keep the spatulas.
  7. Put your tins on the middle shelf and let them cook for 25 minutes. At this time you will ponder your place in the universe. Check in on your tins every little bit. (Don’t open the door, though.)
  8. At this point, you may remove the tins from the oven. There’s a very simple and effective way to tell if they’re ready or not, but it’s funnier if you just poke it a bit and figure it out.
  9. If these rigorous tests give positive results, you may set the tins aside to cool for five or so minutes, and through sheer force of will, transfer the bases to a cooling rack and let it cool completely
  10. For the buttercream, buy it at a store (if you're a loser) or you may beat your remaining 3 ½ ounces of butter in your secondary bowl along with half your icing sugar until it’s smooth. Add the remaining amount and a tablespoon of the milk and beat it some more. If it’s to thick, add your last bit of milk, if not: drink it, it’s good for your bones.
  11. Now begins your stacking process, start with one cake on the bottom and add a layer of jam and then buttercream, and a few raspberries if you're feeling adventurous, add your next layer and repeat until you have no more layers to place, go freestyle on the top of the cake with the last raspberries, buttercream, and icing sugar. Eat the jam.
  12. Make another one and enjoy! :D