I have long had trouble making a decent Victoria sponge, but having lashed out some Nectar points and a couple of quid, I bought the new Great British bake-off book which accompanies the second series, and hey presto - I can make a good Victoria sponge! People actually say how good they are, and I am very happy! (Sad what simple things can make me happy, really!)
It is a fairly simple recipe involving 8oz each of butter, sugar, and flour; 4 eggs, a tsp of vanilla extract and a tbsp of milk.
So, what's the secret? Well, the recipe in the book actually explains about beating the ingredients to get the air into the mixture. You are told to beat the butter, then beat the butter and sugar together for quite some time, and then add the eggs whilst beating even more - and then the folding in of the sifted flour with a big metal spoon. All that I used to think of as faffing about, but it Really Makes A Difference....so now I do it - have made several plain sponges with raspberry jam and a sprinkling of icing sugar, and have also tried a coffee and walnut version, and even a chocolate version - and they all work.
Now I am confident with the sponges, I am going to try some of the other recipes in the book. And I have ordered Mary Berry's Baking Bible from the library, so I can't wait for that to come in, and who knows what I might learn?!
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6 comments:
What size tins do you use? despite having made dozens of gateaux etc in the past, I have trouble making a decent sponge too.
They are 8" diameter tins, Silversewer.
Pleased you have finally cracked it!!I must admit that i always make a big sponge and cut it in half as i find individual ones overcook too easily
I amloving the programme and whilst quite a confident cook i would be terrified under such pressure,
I haven't managed to watch the programme yet this time! I tried to watch in on iPlayer one day last week and the whole thing went queer and I had to turn it off and try again, then it started on about not enough bandwidth so I gave up...book is good, though!
Actually managed to watch the episode tonight! Bread making is quite tricky - maybe I should read that chapter in the book...
I am loving watching the series on iPlayer. (We don't have a TV). My first cookbook was a Mary Berry one and I still use it regularly. I often make Victoria sponges but I've never beaten the butter by itself before. All that beating sounds great for "bingo wings"; it's just a shame that it's the baking that caused mine in the first place! When it comes to bread, I'm afraid I stick to the bread-maker, otherwise you could use mine for bricklaying.
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