This is what Sunday night dinners are all about…My mom used to make 4 cakes every Saturday for our traditional Sunday lunch. She would slice them in half and fill them with homemade Strawberry jam. Of course, it was served with light cream to make it even more festive. Growing up, every family had a Vanilla cake recipe, but nothing beats the Victoria sponge cake, also known as the Victoria sandwich cake. It was named after Queen Victoria, who was known to enjoy the small cakes with her afternoon tea. The version Queen Victoria ate would have been filled with jam alone, but modern versions often include chantilly cream and in this case, a buttery lemon curd. Here is the recipe
INGREDIENTS
175 Gr. All purpose flour
1.5 Teaspoon of baking powder
3 Large eggs at room temperature
175 Gr. butter at room temperature
175 Gr Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla extract
Chantilly Cream
1 Cup of Double cream (35%)
1 Teaspoon Vanilla extract
1 Teaspoon Powder Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Corn Starch
Small Jar of Lemon curd – About half cup.
PREPARATION
Preheat the oven to 170C
Butter and flour a cake tin and place a piece of parchment paper at the bottom.
Take a large mixing bowl, put the flour and baking powder in a sieve and sift it into the bowl, holding the sieve high to give it a good airing as it goes down.
In a separate bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the butter with the sugar until creamy, light and pale in color. Add the eggs, one at a time and the vanilla extract. Add half the sifted flour and mixed until fully incorporated. Finally, add the other half of the flour mixture and mix thoroughly until you have a smooth, well-combined mixture, which will take about one minute. If you do not have an electric hand whisk, you can use a wooden spoon, using a little bit more effort. What you will now end up with is a mixture that drops off a spoon when you give it a tap on the side of the bowl. If it seems a little too stiff, add a little milk and mix again.
Pour the mixture in a tin and place on the centre shelf of the oven. The cakes will take 30-35 minutes to cook, but do not open the oven door until 30 minutes have elapsed.
To test whether the cakes are cooked or not, touch the centre of each lightly with a finger: if it leaves no impression and the sponges spring back, they are ready.
Next, remove the cake from the oven, then wait about five minutes before turning it out on to a wire cooling rack. Carefully peel off the base paper, which is easier if you make a fold in the paper first, then pull it gently away without trying to lift it off. Now leave the sponges to get completely cold, then add the filling.
You can use any filling you like. Strawberry jam is a classic filling which is used in most households, but you can use whatever filling you like. We enjoy lemon curd which is not too sweet, combined with chantilly cream.
Chantilly cream : The success for a firm and stable cream is to use very cold ingredients. Before am
TIP DU JOUR :
To make the perfect cake, all your ingredients should be at room temperature. I usually leave them out overnight night on the counter and are ready for the following day.
For the Chantilly cream, make sure the cream is very, very cold. I leave it in the fridge until the very last minute. In a bowl, pour the cream, one tablespoon of icing sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch. The addition of sugar and corn starch help stabilize the cream and make it more firm.
Pour your filling on half of the cake and cover with Chantilly cream.
Sprinkle icing sugar on top fo the cake and serve at room temperature.
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