Victoria Sandwich Sponge Cake Revisited!

As-Salam Alaikum / Greetings Dear Reader,

Today I'm revisiting an old favourite of mine, the Victoria sandwich sponge cake which was named after Queen Victoria, who favoured a slice of the sponge cake with her afternoon tea.

To make this British Classic Cake I adapted Mary Berry's Recipe.

I used both apricot (dh favourite) and strawberry jam (my favourite) plus the optional whipped cream to fill my 22.5cm cake (original recipe makes a deeper sponge cake using a 20 cm cake tin) . 

Both self raising flour and baking powder are used to create an extremely light and tender sponge cake. I used the creaming method of making the sponge batter which gave yet even more lightness but feel free to follow Mary Berry's all in one method and you will still get an oh so soft sponge cake, it will be hard to resist taking an extra slice!

Victoria Sandwich Sponge Cake

Makes 1 x 22.5cm Cake

Ingredients

For the Cake

225g caster sugar (preferably Golden), plus extra for dusting the finished cake                                                                                      

225g softened/room temperature unsalted butter

4 large eggs, room temperature

225g self-raising flour

2tsp baking powder

For the Filling

8tbsp of your favourite jam, I used 4tbsp each of apricot and strawberry

300ml double cream, whipped (optional and can be substituted with buttercream icing)

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C Fan/180C/ 350F. Weigh all ingredients. Sieve flour and baking powder together, set aside. Cream butter and sugar together for about 5mins until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one by one beating well after each addition, sift in your flour/baking powder, mix until well combined, don't over mix! .

Spoon the cake batter into your tin and smooth out with palette knife or the back of a spoon, make a slight indentation in the centre, this will ensure the top doesn't dome too much.  Bake on middle shelf of oven for 35 mins (I use an electric fan oven so you may need to adjust cooking time according to your type of oven) until a cocktail stick comes out clean or the centre springs back when pressed gently with a finger.

Remove from oven, place on cooling rack and leave to cool for 5 minutes, the cake should have started to shrink and come away from the sides so proceed to remove from your cake tin (I used silicone bake ware which makes this process a lot easier) place cake on cooling rack and leave to cool completely.

Slice cake in 2, put the flat bottom to the side, this will become the top of your cake. Spread Jam liberally over your other cake half. Whip double cream, I piped my cream on top of the jam layer using a regular circular tip and then smoothed it out using a palette knife but if your not worried about the jam and the cream mixing together or oozing out of the cake, spread the whip cream on top of the jam layer using a spoon / knife.

Place the remaining sponge cake layer on top and dust with caster sugar.

If you filled your Victoria sandwich sponge cake with whipped cream then it's essential to keep it chilled in the fridge until you are ready to take your first slice, I promise it won't be your last.

*Post updated from 13th May 2012

Sage & Onion Tear & Share Bread

As-Salam Alaikum Sisters / Greetings Dear Reader,

If you ask any Brit what their favourite dinner is? a lot will still say a traditional roast dinner, even after all the wonderful food culture that is now in Britain we still love our roast meat and boiled vegetables.

This sage and onion tear and share bread which really are just bread rolls joined together (usually in a circle but I must have skipped over those instruction, ooops!) tastes just like the sage and onion stuffing that goes so well with a roast Chicken/Turkey dinner.

Read more »

Almond Butter Cookies using homemade almond butter (Dairy, Egg & Gluten Free)

As-Salamu Alaikum,

I used to follow recipes 100% through fear of messing up, I admit I got good results 95% of the time. I don't know what came over me really but now I just can't stick to a recipe, no matter how good it looks!

Read more »

Vegetable Pasties For Lunch

As-Salamu Alaikum / Greetings dear reader,

I'd like to share what I made for lunch one day last week, vegetable pasties!

Pasty: a baked pastry usually made by placing a cooked or uncooked filling typically of meat and vegetables, without meat in vegetarian versions, on a flat pastry circle and folding it to wrap the filling, crimping the edge to form a seal. After baking, the result is a raised semi-circular pasty.

The most famous pasty being the Cornish Pasty - a meat and vegetable filled pasty from Cornwall, England.

I first saw the recipe for vegetable pasties over on the blog Muslimah in Solace masha'Allah i instantly knew they were something I needed to make and I wasn't disappointed, Alhamdulillah they are delicious especially because of the addition of spice! I hope you too enjoy and bake them sometime soon in sha Allah i think they could be good for a kids packed lunch if they like eating vegetables that is and don't forget you can fill these with meat too! also pasties are easy to freeze once cooled or store in the fridge and keep for a good 2 days.

A few things to note are:-

I halved the recipe and ended up with 8 small pasties as I used a small bowl as a circular template for cutting out the pastry but if you prefer, you can make 5/6 regular ones using a regular bowl just i have this obsession with making things smaller in order to convince myself i can have more.

I used plain flour not strong bread flour and used a lot less water (like 35ml not 250ml which would be half the original recipe called for) than stated in the recipe so just eyeball it, add water slowly and mix with a butter knife once it starts coming together stop adding water and switch to bringing the dough together with your hand(s)

I added small cubes of cheese to each pasty filling (not in the original recipe) before baking, it spilt out of any little cracks or holes it could find and made the pastry a little softer than I would have liked but then again I love the flavour of cheese so i will still be using it when i make these again.

For the full recipe click here

I served some of the pasties with this salad.

Brioche For Breakfast - Algerian Chrik

As-Salamu Alaikum

Brioche is an enriched sweet bread dough that can be baked in the traditional fluted tins or made into buns and whole loafs of various shapes. It's rich and tender crumb comes from using both butter and eggs in the dough.

Of course Brioche originated in France but like the baguette it too made it's way into Algerian cuisine during the occupation.

Read more »

Chocolate Covered Lemon Cake

As-Salamu Alaikum,

No denying I enjoy eating my fair share of cake but what I like just as much is making/baking it.

I find making and baking a cake very therapeutic and satisfying for the soul, every baker whether home or professional I'm sure feels the same.

This cake came from having an urge to bake cake (it happens often) but only having 150grams unsalted butter left in the house, lemons and a bar of plain chocolate cake covering and so my chocolate covered lemon cake was born and shortly after devoured.

You can't beat a buttery, soft, zesty cake with a chocolate 'shell' for extra self-indulgence!

I'm no stranger to the combination of chocolate and lemon together, I recently made chocolate lemon cupcakes and was bowled over by how well they work together BUT feel free to swap the lemon for an orange and you can have a chocolate covered orange cake or if you like cupcakes try my most popular viewed chocolate orange cupcakes instead.

Chocolate Covered Lemon Cake

Makes a 1x 20cm cake

Ingredients

150 grams unsalted butter or margarine, room temperature (take it out of the fridge the night before)

150 grams caster sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

3 eggs, medium or large

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

150 grams self-raising flour

Covering & Decoration

150grams plain chocolate, melted

Sprinkles (optional)

Method

Pre-heat oven to 350F/180C/160C (Fan)/Gas Mark 4 and place your oven rack in the centre.

Line the bottom of a  loose based 20cm round cake pan, grease and flour the sides.

Place butter, sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl, cream together until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. If you notice the mixture curdling you can add a tablespoon of your self-raising flour to stabilize the mix.

Add lemon juice then sieve in self-raising flour, fold in until your mixture is homogeneous.

Pour cake mixture into cake pan and level using a palette knife. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out with clean or with a few dry crumbs clinging to it.

Remove cake from oven and place on cooling rack. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, run a knife around the edges then loosen the collar on your loose based pan and remove it, leave on base place on cooling rack to cool completely then remove base and baking paper.

Place cake on serving plate, you may wish to level it but I didn't. Melt your chocolate in a heat proof bowl inside microwave on 30seconds bursts until full melted. Pour chocolate over cake and leave it to cool slightly before decorating with sprinkles. Leave chocolate to cool and set before taking a slice, if you can resist!

Note If I were to make this cake again, I would add some lemon zest to the top of the cake after pouring on the melted chocolate, just to give it that bit of extra zing! I did add lemon sugar crystals on half the cake (husband doesn't like sprinkles so I try to please everyone lol) but they didn't give so much lemon flavour as I hoped.

My Take On Algerian Kesra

As-Salamu Alaikum / Welcome Reader,

Kesra:- an Algerian flat bread that is good served at breakfast, spread with butter and honey.

Read more »

Recent Recipes I've Tried & Love (Photos & Links)

As-Salamu Alaikum,

Here are a few photos & links to recipes I've recently tried and love, Alhamdulillah

Read more »

My First Chiffon Cake - Peppermint Chocolate

As-Salam Alaykum,

As with all firsts it didn't go according to plan and I've learnt another valuable baking lesson, more on that in a tick, first what is a chiffon cake?

Chiffon Cakes are also known as Mayonnaise Cakes as they contain oil, water and eggs unlike Angel Cake which are made using no fat and can be rather dry Chiffon retains  it's moisture which in my book means they are better.

They are made by first whisking oil, egg yolks and water together, sifting cake flour and sugar into the oil mix and beating for 1 minute at high speed.

To give the cake it's light airy texture the egg whites are whisked separately to stiff peaks with more sugar i.e. a meringue then slowly folded into the first, denser oil/flour mixture.

Valuable Lesson - Fold meringue into the oil/flour mixture in 4-6 stages not in 2!

I didn't fold my meringue into the oil/flour mixture well enough, thinking I would knock all the air out of the cake if I folded in the flour in many stages I tried to do it quicker in 2 but it didn't work when I poured the batter into my silicone cake pans there was still quite a lot of the denser oil/flour mixture at the bottom of the mixing bowl which I scraped out and put into the center of one of the pans and gave it a quick stir in hoping for the best!

As I made two cakes the one you see below ended up being more dense in 'spots' where the batter hadn't been mixed / folded in properly Alhamdulillah it was still edible just not worthy of being frosted so I sprinkled it with icing sugar and put it to one side for second best bites.

Chiffon Cakes usually are baked in tube/Bundt pans as this helps the cake rise evenly and as they tend to sink once removed from the oven they are baked in ungreased/floured sided  pans and inverted (onto such things as the bottom of a flower pot) upon removal from the oven and left to cool totally inside the pan.

I haven't got any tube pans (they are on my long shopping list) so I resorted to my round silicone pans and still inverted them, onto a cooling rack lined with baking paper however, as silicone is non stick they started to slide out and stick to the baking paper, ooops! So I do recommend you use metal cake pans for chiffon cakes. It wasn't such a disaster after all, as once the cakes had cooled completely and been unmoulded from the silicone pans I peeled off the baking paper without causing too much damage to the surface of the cakes and kept those sides face down :)

The need to make the buttercream icing green and blue for this cake apart from it being peppermint flavoured of course, was that my 4year old son asked me for a green monster cake.

He got a green and blue frosted chocolate cake without a monster in site (depending on how you view this cake that is lol) I intended the blue to be a rose in the center, but I used an unfamiliar open star tip (not the wilton 1M which is my favourite for piping roses) and ended up going for a swirly circle?!

Next time I make this cake, I will dare to slice the fluffy pillow in 2 and fill it with a lighter buttercream, say Italian meringue or even whipped cream would go well as the cake is so delicate it deserves a filling to match.

Here is my cake recipe, using self raising flour instead of the more traditional cake flour.

The cakes flavour and the texture (lots of air holes) reminded me of a mint aero chocolate bar!

Peppermint Chocolate Chiffon Cake(s)

Adapted from Chiffon Cake Recipe found in the book, The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg.

Recipe makes 2 x 23cm cakes but the recipe can easily be divided by 2 to make only 1 cake. I highly recommend you make just 1 cake if like me, it is your first time baking this type of  sponge cake. Folding in a 4 egg white meringue will be much easier than one made using 8.

Ingredients

2/3 Cup (160ml) Vegetable Oil (I used sunflower)

8 Egg Yolks

1 Cup (250ml) Water, room temperature

1 Tablespoon Peppermint Oil

336 Grams Self Raising Flour

85 Grams Cocoa Powder

400 Grams Caster Sugar, divided (see method)

8 Egg Whites

Method

Pre-Heat Oven to 375F/190C /170C (fan)

Beat Egg Yolks, Oil, Peppermint Oil together and stir in water.

Sift Flour, Cocoa & 130 Grams sugar into egg yolk mixture and mix in. Beat mixture at high speed for 1 minute (2 if doing by hand with a spoon - it's hard work!) and set aside.

In a separate grease free bowl whip your egg whites at high speed (I recommend using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or an electric hand whisk) until frothy then gradually add 270 Grams sugar and continue to whisk until stiff peak stage.

Fold Meringue into your cake batter in 4-6 stages, I used a tablespoon to do this but ideally you need a bigger metal spoon or a rubber spatula.

Divide final cake mixture equally between your 2 cake pans and bake in the center of your oven for 25-30minutes or until the center springs back slightly when pressed with a finger.

Remove from oven and invert pans onto a cooling rack and allow to cool.

Fill and decorate your cake with your favourite icing, whipped double cream, jam, layer of fruit etc..