August's cake of the month: victorian sponge
I followed the classic ratio of the same weight of eggs (in shell), flour, sugar, and butter. This batch (6") was made with 2 eggs, and I used a heaping teaspoon of baking powder. I think I could up the leavening a little since the cake is still quite substantial, and also because my baking powder is quite old and have reduced leavening capabilities. There is also a dash of vanilla extract in the batter.
I made strawberry jam from fresh strawberries, and eyeballed the sugar (also to taste, since the strawberries weren't very sweet) and added a squeeze of lemon juice. It took a while for the jam to reduce to the right consistency, I stopped cooking it as soon as it could leave dry streaks in the pot. While the jammy strawberry flavour works well with the cake as its quite a rich and buttery batter, I'll try using fresh macerated strawberry in the next iteration.
One mistake is using freshly whipped cream as a filling. It got squeezed out between the cake layers when cutting the cake. Something with more strength, like a buttercream of some sort, would be better. However I do like the fresh and light taste of whipped cream compared to buttercream, so maybe I'll just have the jam in the middle and have the cream on the top. This time the cream was infused with basil, which pairs wonderfully with strawberry. I found this flavour pairing through Eric's ice cream.
Overall I'd say this is a success, as it is quite a bit better than most victoria sponges you can buy in UK, and at least on par with the good ones sold there. Also a very simple cake to make (and decorate).
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