Chefette's Victoria Sandwich Sponge Cake

The Victoria Sandwich Sponge Cake is probably the most popular and stock standard cake in the UK. In Australia, I guess our typical type of Birthday cake would be a chocolate mud, well in the UK it is the classic Victoria Sponge. I wouldn't describe the Victoria Sandwich as a sponge by my maybe Aussie definition, but more like a butter or pound cake. The cake was named after Queen Victoria who favoured this cake with her afternoon tea over all other sweet treats. Victoria Sponge recipes barely differ, but as I find this cake a bit too heavy, I have changed the method, which made the cake far less dense.

Victoria Sandwich Sponge Cake

200g caster sugar

200g butter

200g self-raising flour

4 eggs separated

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cream of tartar

2 tablespoons milk

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and grease and line two baking tins.

2. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in an electric mixer until soft peaks form, set aside.

3. Cream butter and sugar in an electric mixing bowl and gradually add egg yolks, vanilla bean paste, milk and flour (in that order).

4. Gradually fold egg whites into cake batter.

5. Traditionally you halve the batter and bake two cakes and sandwich them together once baked, however, I separated my batter into halves and coloured some red and baked four individual cakes rather than two. Completely your preference. Be creative!

6. Bake until cake springs back or when a skewer comes out clean.

Assembly 

Victoria Sandwich Butter Cream

100g butter

140g icing sugar

1. Blend butter and icing sugar together in electric mixer until smooth.

In between every layer OR in the middle of your two sandwiches, spread a layer of strawberry or raspberry jam and the Victoria Sandwich Butter cream.

Decoration

Quite often icing sugar is sifted on top, but I used a hard white icing and then piped on some roses in royal icing to finish it off and give it a special touch.

Happy Caking xxx

Rainbow Velvet Cake

The rainbow cake seems to be the "it" cake of the moment, it's all over the internet and you can't go on Pinterest without being bombarded by pictures of this delectable and colourful creation. I brushed it aside thinking it would be more stress than what it is worth until my cousin from Back in G-Town  made one for her Little Miss' 4th birthday! She inspired me to attempt one for my baby cousin's second birthday, and I'm glad I did. It is certainly not as hard as it looks, and this my friends, is a cake that vanishes, because everyone wants to try a piece because it looks so fun!

So I used an old faithful recipe of mine found here, for classic Red Velvet and I quadrupled it to ensure I had enough cake batter.

I made a lush chocolate frosting to go with it as I decorated with Kit Kats, and I wanted a blended look, but the standard tends to be a white frosting.

Dark Chocolate and Vanilla Bean Frosting

Ingredients

750 grams unsalted butter 

6 cups sifted icing sugar

4 tablespoons milk

1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste

375 grams dark chocolate

Method

1. In an electric mixer using the paddle attachment whip butter for 7 minutes on medium speed until pale and fluffy.

2. Turn mixer down to low speed and add icing sugar, vanilla and milk until combined.

3. Mix on medium setting for a further 6 minutes and add melted chocolate slowly.

4. Butter-cream should be very fluffy and pale.

Now back to the cake, I did five coloured layers so I divided the batter equally into five bowls before adding any food colouring. Once in the five bowls I coloured them all nice and brightly.

A word of advice... bake this cake to a size in which you have two tins, trust me it's a much quicker process.

Bake each colour one by one and allow to cool, they will look like coloured pancakes at this point.

Start by placing your first cake layer down and spreading with the frosting and repeat the process until you have something that looks like this.

With any cake I do, I always do a crumb layer of frosting i.e. a very thin layer of frosting over the whole cake which catches all of the cake crumbs before I put I nice clean layer of frosting on top. After I have done the crumb layer I put the cake in the fridge to slightly harden before I do the "good" layer.

After I had done the good layer of frosting I broke up four family Kit Kat blocks to stick around the border. Then I covered the top with loads of M and M's and tied it all up with a decorative ribbon.

It is definitely one to try out, even if you're not comfortable, start small, do three layers, use a packet mix, it's all about experimentation!

Happy Baking All xxx