one mix, four cakes?

[countdowntofriday]

There's a week in July where 3 members of our family have a birthday, and one is a grandchild who, because of social distancing, will have two parties. I've a bit of time over the weekend and wanted to make the sponges for them all. Because it'll be mostly the same people, I'd like the cakes to seem different, so does anyone have a recipe that they tweak so I could make one go of batter and then separate it and add different things to it? I need some serious inspiration!

A classic victoria sponge mix is very versatile. The wonderful Nigella Lawson's Domestic Goddess book suggests loads of tweets you can make to a 4 large egg/225 butter/SRflour/caster sugar, splash of milk mix, tsp vanilla extract mix

• swop vanilla for lemon oil (or zest and juice but then leave out the milk), fill with 100g softened marscapone & 100g good lemon curd
• add 1 tsp instant expresso powder, fill with coffee buttercream

She also does passionfruit and rhubarb variations which are a bit more complex but not much. Happy to add details if that's your bag.

I'd also swop 50g flour for 50g cocoa powder to make a chocolate one and fill with nutella and whipped cream.

tweeks not tweets, ffs...

Those sound amazing! Should've known Nigella would have my back when it comes to lazy baking!

Cherry bakewell - add almond essence or a spoon of ground almonds into the batter before baking. Sandwich with raspberry jam, drizzle with icing and scatter with flaked almonds.

Coffee and walnut - add a tablespoon (or two) of very concentrated (cold) coffee to the batter, some chopped walnuts and sandwich with coffee buttercream.

Lemon and raspberry - add lemon zest to batter. Sandwich with lemon curd and raspberries and add whipped double cream if you like. Top with lemon butter icing and raspberries.

Banoffee - Sandwich the sponge together with caramel, then a layer of banana slices and then a layer of cream. Repeat on the top. Add chocolate shavings and serve immediately.

Classic sponge mix of equal amounts of butter, sugar and flour, eggs (1 egg per 2oz of other ingredients). Sorry I'm old fashioned and don't know grams!

Then you can turn them into different flavours...

Lemon... add lemon zest and juice

Chocolate...replace some flour with cocoa

Coffee and walnut. add some espresso and chopped nuts

Apple...add diced apple and cinnamon

Orange...add zest and juice