VICTORIA SPONGE help urgently needed!!!

[winnybella]

Right, so it's DS's birthday today and I decided to make Victoria sponge with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

Now I have a few questions, please:

1. I haven't got 2 tins, I have one that's about 3 inches deep. Can I just make one sponge in it and then slice it? How do I need to adjust baking time for it?

1. Fold the flour in (and what does it mean?) or just whisk all ingredients together?

1. I thought I'll just do strawberries and cream, but almost all recipes use strawberry jam together with strawerries and cream. Thoughts?

1. How much vanilla sugar should I add to 50cl of cream? Or should I mix icing sugar with vanilla sugar?

TIA, I need to start baking in an hour.

.

you could do two cakes by cooking half the ingredients then the other half.
fold in the flour just means stir it in gently so as not to loose any of the air (personally I just do the all in the mixer method like Delia)
You cold heat up some of the strawberries with some sugar (gently heat until the sugar has disolved, maybe add a little water) to make a kind of jam. But imo strawberries and cream will be fine.
If you add the vanilla sugar to the cream will it be grainy? Maybe just icing sugar and a drop of vanilla extract if you have it.

What recipe are you using?

1yes you can use one tin and cut it in half but you will need to reduce the oven temp and cook it for a bit longer. I would use the conventional oven setting rather than fan and line the outside of the tin as well as the inside (tie string around it to keep it in place )

1. If you are using a creaming method recipe (ie you have to cream the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy, then slowly add the beaten eggs and then the flour) you need to use a metal spoon and slowly and carefully fold in, by sort of lifting and turning over the mix. This is to keep the air in that you beat in when you did the butter and sugar.

If you're doing an all in one job with added baking powder you don't need to fold the flour in as you,ve added a raising agent.

1. Yes to jam, cream and strawbs. The jam gives that extra sweet edge. But the I am a pig. Horses for courses

4 dunno about adding the sugar to the cream as I would think the jam plus strawbs is sugar enough. Maybe add a couple of tbsp and do a taste test before adding any more.

Thanks.

I'm not using any particular recipe, there's a few on BBC Food- they all seem quite similar.

OK, so if oven temp would normally be 180 degrees and it would bake for 20 minutes- how do I adjust the temp- to 170?

Also I haven't got SF flour- in the recipes on bbc it says to use SF flour and a teaspoon of baking powder. So should I just use an amount of Baking powder that I normally would in the x amount of flour, or do I thorw in an extra teaspoon?

Thank you so much, I realise it's a simple recipe, but I haven't time to redo it if I mess it up the first time.

I would do 170 or 160 if you have a fierce oven(I have a fierce oven) on conventional and after mmmm. Maybe 35-40 mins do a quick test. Gently press the top of the cake with a finger, if it bounces back up it is done.

Obviously don't open the oven door if your cakes are still very pale. Wait until they have browner nicely on the top.

No don,t bung in anymore baking powder. Use the creaming method and veeeeeeery gently fold in the flour, like you were bathing Daniel Craig's feet with perfumed oil with a very expensive golden spoon.

Don't bang the tin about either when you put it in the oven.

Careful now.

Thanks

Arrgh, butter wasn't soft enough, so creaming impossible, it's in little cumbs with sugar in bowl. Shall I nuke it for a few seconds?

ah

Yes you are in the process of making a crumble topping

Strawberry crumble is very nice.....

Umm

No stay away from the microwave.

Are you in a big rush? can you put it in the sunshine to let the butter come up to room temp.

Are you eggs out? If not get them out. Everything should be at room temp

Sunshine, ha ha ha. I wish. I'll put the bowl on the radiator shelf.

Ok, will take eggs out.

I can actually bake- well a few things like chocolate cake and tarts etc.

Delia's talking about 'curdling' of butter mixture when you add eggs. Hmm.

How to fold. You don't have to be that slow - just be gentle and don't whisk.

Put the butter in a bowl and stick it on the radiator for 5 minutes (a bit precarious admittedly). That should soften it a bit.

Strawberry jam this time of year might be nice as strawberrys aren't in season and not as tasty as they could be.

Yes don't worry too much about that. When you add the beaten eggs do it a little bit at a time and keep on beating. If it does curdle just add a tbsp of the flour and that should sort it.

Have you sifted the flour yet? Go and sift it now into bowl and then high sift it in to the mix SLOWLY a bit at a time when you come to the post eggs/folding stage.

Ok, so I have done it Delia's way and have beat the eggs first before adding them to the butter&sugar mix. All good. Then I added (sieved) flour- I haven't seen your link, Niecie-don't want to now in case I've done it wrong - but I gently mixed it in and it's in the oven now.

Almost forgot to add baking powder, remembered at the last minute.

Delia says to put on the middle shelf-hmm-I've done that at 160 degrees- but I also have a fierce oven-maybe it would be better at the bottom? What do you think?

But the mixture was fluffy, so that's good, I guess.

Also, how long for making whipped cream with 50cl? I guess I need to make it at the last moment? Or can I make it and put it in the fridge for a bit?

Don't move it now. Just watch through the door and wait.

You can whip the cream now and put it in a covered bowl in the fridge until the cake has cooled.

Oh crap. It's been in the oven for 40 minutes now, but although brown, it doesn't look like on the photos. Still not cooked, although it has risen and it smells all eggy- I added 4 eggs as per bbc recipe-cooking a fucking omlette now!

It doesn't have a nice crust thing on top, more like a souffle.

Fuck.

So I took it out as was getting too brown, but it doesn't really spring back in th middle and it will burn before it's cooked. Put it back for a sec on the ottom on lower temp, but I think it's over. Shit.

Gawd

Ok calm

All will be well with the eggy cake.

Have you pressed it or skewered it to see if it is cooked?

Put some tin foil over the top to stop the crust from burning and put it back in.

Think lovely risen cake thoughts and send them into the oven with the power of your mind.

Strawberries and cream and wine (not for ds) will make a lovely alternative.

Actually, now I look at it, edges are fine but middle isn't- a bit collapsedd-shouldn't have taken it out but thought it will burn. ARRRGH.

Keep thinking positive thoughts at your cake.

Have you put it back in with the foil on the top?

Ah, no, not with foil. Should I?

Well the foil will stop the top burning while the innards have a bit longer to cook properly.

Depends on how dark you like your cake crust.

But maybe you should desist from opening the door any more.

I am so emotionally involved in this cake it's not true.

Ok, put some foil on top, but the middle, although not totally collapsed is sort of bubbly and not higher than the edges iyswim as it was before. Oh well, as long as it cooks through without burning it might be okish as will cover with cream and strawberries.

Yes exactly.

Sponge in any cooked format covered with cream and strawberries is always a lovely thing.

Children rarely notice if things are a bit on the wonk anyway.

you didn't make a Victoria Sponge, you made a Victoria Sandwich.
A sponge doesn't have fat in it - if you've made a Victoria Sandwich, you have used equal parts flour, eggs, fat and sugar.
If you haven't, then you haven't made a Victoria Sandwich, you've made a cake or other description.

(sorry, it's my bugbear)

sorry, can't offer any help -
although, your baking powder might be out of date - that will affect its efficacy.

:o at emotionally involved. It's like reading about someone performing resuscitation while taking advice from the 999 emergency bods!

have you tried a bit of it?
it might taste okay...