I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to perfect the perfect
Women's Institute Victoria sponge. A proper prize winner and I think I've cracked it.
A standard WI Victoria sponge must be made using the creaming method [insert innuendo here] where the butter and sugar are creamed together. In addition to this you cannot submit a Victoria sponge to a WI competition with a filling of anything other than Raspberry Jam. Butter cream is undoubtedly frowned upon and my inclusion of vanilla essence and some orange zest would probably be considered a court-martial offence and at the addition of Whiskey I think I should probably give up!. That said I've eaten a few Victoria sponges in my time, and in my opinion the inclusion of Orange Butter cream gives it something, and who doesn't like a little snifter of something boozy to give it an edge? Lets be honest, nothing I ever make is going to rival my mother's Victoria Sponge so why not bend the rules a little and include some variations on this Great British Classic.
Ingredients:
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Butter
6oz Self Raising Flour
6oz egg (about three large, weigh and adjust the flour, sugar and butter accordingly, all ingredients must weigh the same)
About 5 tbs milk.
1tsp Vanilla Extract
For the filling:
Raspberry Jam (2 heaped tbs ish)
Zest of half an Orange and 2tbs of Juice
1tsp Whiskey (optional)
2oz Butter
5oz Icing Sugar
I'm sorry all the ingredients are in Imperial, my mother calls this a 666 cake, (you can see why) and I don't really make it using metric. (Old Skool...innit)
Method:
1) I know weighing the eggs seems like a massive fanny, but honestly it works. Break the eggs into a small bowl and note the weight of them, then measure the rest of the ingredients to the same weight.
2)In a clean large bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Caster Sugar gives a finer cake than granulated sugar (again, massive fanny...bear with me!) so you don't get grainy bits in your cooked cake. By cream I mean beat together, with a wooden spoon the sugar, and if you're feeling lazy soften the butter a bit in the microwave but don't let it melt fully. (Those is the rules!)The mix will go like sand and then it will finally come together into something pale and creamy [more innuendo needed?]
3) When you've got pale and creamy butter and sugar mix in the eggs. At this stage I start using a whisk to work out the lumps. (To be honest you could use an electric whisk all the way through, but at the moment I have a lot of stress and frustration to work out, and the butter and cream seems like a good place to start. It also does wonders for the bingo wings!)
4) The next stage is to drop the flour in, be gentle with the mix from this point, you could sieve the flower, but I don't own a sieve (but I do own 35 different biscuit cutters...) so I just shake the flower in from a height in the hope of adding some air.
5) Throw in the vanilla essence and a splash of milk. Recipes often call for "soft dropping consistency" I have no clue what this means really so I just get it to the stage where the cake will fill the tin easily without too much pushing into the edges!
6) Separate between two greased and floured sponge tins. Bake for 20-25 mins (until a skewer will come out clean and the sponge "springs back" when touched)and leave to cool.
7)In order to make the butter cream cream the butter and icing sugar together, grate in the zest of the orange and add about 2 tbs of the juice, this will loosen up the icing and make the mixing a bit easier. If using it chuck in some Whiskey. Whiskey and orange are an awesome combo and it gives the cake a bit of a kick. Gin would be a nice addition, but in this house mothers ruin doesn't get as far as cooking, I usually reserve it for bathing in...ahem.
8) When the cakes are cool, spread the layers with jam and butter cream and sandwich together.
I'm eating slivers of this cake with Lady Grey tea, although a Pimms and Lemonade might go with it nicely, or even a G&T. Whilst enjoying the Glorious British-ness of my surroundings I think a bit of Americana is called for...just to readdress the balance. Perhaps not the most gentle afternoon tea kind of music, but We are Scientist's
Barbara comes heartily recommended. I picked the third offering from We Are Scientists up at the weekend having spent a good ten months listening to it on-line, I decided its about time I bought it. I had a bit of a CD splurge on Saturday, nothing exciting, mostly just filling gaps in my collection. I know vinyl is what the cool kids are doing, but as far as I'm concerned the CD is the ultimate format. Long lasting, durable, high quality and best of all PORTABLE. Forgive me for my old fashioned disk man, but that's just how I roll.
The things I've noticed when listening to
Barbara on my CD player rather than through my laptop is the quality of the production, The WAS boys are notorious music geeks, accompanying the tour for
Brain Thrust Mastery in 2007 with a series of humourous "self improvement seminars" given at university music departments and schools of music. Like all WAS albums it contains a collection of up beat songs with a real indie disco feel, songs about nights out (Jack and Ginger being a personal favourite song) and girls lost. Some how this last album didn't truly achieve the critical acclaim it deserved, it passed with little notice unlike their previous offerings. The best thing about WAS in my opinion is their live capabilities, having seen them a few years ago in a basement in York I was hooked. WAS are playing the extremely good value, well organised and highly exciting
dot-to-dot festivals in Nottingham, Bristol and this year MANCHESTER! They are also putting in an appearance at a couple of other British festivals as well as
odd gigs through out the Summer. They are definitely worth the ticket price!
So there you have it. Cake, tea and We are Scientist's. Long live the Great British Summer!
