advice for making a Victoria sponge with no electric mixer

[peridito]

I wanted to have a go at a Vic sponge as son is a fan and his birthday is tomorrow ,and I've not bought a cake ?

Shall I cream the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon (have checked youtube vids ) ?Then gradually add the beaten egg ?

Or do people think these ingredients will,as the recipe suggests , combine in a bowl with no separate creaming ? Poured into 25cm square tin and cut in half when cooked .

125g very soft butter
175g caster sugar
175g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 organic eggs
65ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract

What do people think ? I'm not experienced at baking .

[peridito]

unescorted ,onthecase I'm really loving these tips ,thank you .
I feel a cake baking episode coming on .And an ever expanding waistline!

And maybe it's because cooks/bakers have learned to pay attention to detail but what a relief to find people who actually read the OP's posts!

[Unescorted]

I see you have done one.... If it comes up and collapses it is too hot or too much baking powder.

Remedy action is use the sunken one on the base and add lots or cream and fruit.

Another method is a milk cake / batter cake.... Melt the butter and sugar really slowly so the sugar dissolves in the butter. Add to SR Flour and eggs. Flavour as you want.

[Isonthecase]

For future reference the easiest way to make cake without a mixer is a bog standard pound cake. You just weigh out a pound each of self raising flour, butter, sugar, and eggs, cream the butter and sugar first until they go a little lighter and then add the eggs and some vanilla essence, mix really well, and add the flour last as you want it in the oven asap once the raising agent starts to react with the eggs.

You'll generally find that a cake with a mix of stork and butter is lighter and you can switch out some butter for milk to make it more moist if you like but the one above is simple, reliable, and works well with hand mixing. I'd also recommend using a tiny bit of icing sugar mixed into your cream to make it hold a bit better, or buttercream instead of cream if you want it to last.

Enjoy!

[peridito]

cuddle ,curdle both are ok .In fact I rather like cuddle as it describes how the cream bundles itself up when it curdles . It's cuddling itself .

And no ,no drink has been taken .

[RampantIvy]

I don't know what went wrong with my previous post. I was on my kindle which auto corrects everything badly

[peridito]

Ok thanks .When whisking double cream for trifle I have taken to adding a little single cream and this does help slow the process down .

[RampantIvy]

Yes, but don't over whisk it so that it starts to cuddle otherwise you will get butter. You don't want the cream to lose our of the middle. Make sure everything is cold. Our the bowl in the fridge before you use it if you have to.

[peridito]

@RampantIvy I'm definitely going with your suggestion next time .

If I go with cream as a filling should I whisk it until it, you know ,goes quite solid ? Using double cream

[RampantIvy]

@goldfinchonthelawn

You get a much better, lighter sponge if you cream butter and sugar first. If you only have a hand whisk, I'd cheat and use mainly Stork (very soft) with about 25g of finely grated good unsalted real butter for flavour

I disagree. I did an experiment by making some sponge cakes by both methods, and my lot couldn't tell the difference. Another time I did a blind tasting by using Stork for one and butter for another. The Stork cake was lighter and a little less greasy.

So my preferred method is an all in one using Stork. My friends, family and workmates love my baking.

[goldfinchonthelawn]

You get a much better, lighter sponge if you cream butter and sugar first. If you only have a hand whisk, I'd cheat and use mainly Stork (very soft) with about 25g of finely grated good unsalted real butter for flavour

[MrsOwainGlyndŵr]

8oz butter/stork
8oz SR flour
8oz caster sugar
4 eggs

Or for a bigger or smaller cake reduce the quantities but keep the same ratio (6663, 4442 etc)

Cream eggs and butter with wooden spoon until the sugar isn't gritty
Add eggs gradually, with a bit of flour it the mixture curdles. Then add the flour bit by bit.

You can't go wrong!

[whataloadabullocks]

Should add I use 200g of self-raising flour, 180g sugar 100g of salted butter 100g unsalted butter and 4 eggs as my basic sponge recipe. If it's chocolate cake I melt 100g of plain chocolate with the butter. If it's banana I add two very ripe alcoholic bananas. Orange cake, one juice, pulp and rind of an orange. Lemon or lime two table spoons of juice and grated rind. Ginger and cardamom cake, two teaspoons of ginger juice and grated ginger and 5g of ground cardamom etc

[toomuchlaundry]

I use Mary Berry all in one method, use Stork and a wooden spoon. Always very light

[whataloadabullocks]

I'm a lazy cook, so melt the butter first and then tip all the ingredients in together quick stir with a wooden spoon and then into the oven. I find this works for pretty much all my cakes (except carrot cake).

[Discovereads]

I go further than simply creaming the butter and sugar. After I cream it, I whisk it until it is light and fluffy before adding the eggs.

[chubbachub]

225g each of butter sugar and flour. And 4 eggs. Never fails. Cream butter and sugar first. Then eggs one at a time. Then sifted flour.

[DisforDarkChocolate]

I enjoy creaming do I do that. Mary Berry votes for all in one.

I think you need a 3 egg recipe though for that size tin.

[Maxifly]

Classic bero recipe, never fails. 4 sugar 4 butter 4 Sr flour 2 eggs. Fan oven at 180. Easy to double up for a larger sized tin.

[peridito]

Weeell ,it rose and then collapsed a bit .Or one of them did . It cooked too quickly I think .160 fan .I know my oven doesn't heat evenly . Maybe I didn't need the additional baking powder .
I creamed the sugar and butter ,weighed the eggs and used that weight for other ingredients .
Fortunately my family my family are not critical of my efforts and once it was stuck together with cram and jam it made an acceptable offering .
I need more practice .

[peridito]

Thank you all so much -like the idea of adding baking powder to the SR ,@RampantIvy and @FunkyPhantom

I'm going to weigh the eggs and use same weights for other ingredients .

@Arenanewbie The recipe I quoted was for a cake that involved no creaming ,just mixed together in a bowl and I think it's wetter than the the standard recipe .

I'll let you know how I get on ...

[commontern]

For 2 20cm sandwich tins you will need a 4 egg mix as link in pp to the BBC recipe above.

Personally I weigh the eggs and then use the same weight of butter, castor sugar and s.r. flour. (That is approximately 8oz or 250gms of each). I then add a little milk or water if necessary (mixture should drop of the spoon if you shake it sharply).

It is also best to line the bottom of the tins with grease proof paper even if the tins are non stick.

[RampantIvy]

I would use equal weights of eggs, SR flour, sugar and butter/marge (using 3 eggs to start with) PLUS 1.5 tsp baking powder. Using the all-in-one method just mix it all together until just mixed. Don't overmix or the cakes won't rise. Pour into two greased and lined 7 inch sandwich tins and bake for 20 - 25 minutes at 160 deg C fan.

I always make sponge cakes by this methos, and they always work.

[motogirl]

I use 8oz butter (or baking margarine) 8oz sugar, 8oz flour 1tsp baking powder, 4 eggs plus vanilla extract or paste. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and whisk them to one side before combining with the creamed mixture, add flour, baking powder and vanilla. Mix well, add a little milk if stuff. I use a strong fork (not one that's bendy so good quality). Bake 190c gas mark 5 for 18-20 mins split between 2 8inch sandwich tins

[Arenanewbie]

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/classic-victoria-sandwich-recipe

this is the recipe I always use. I’m not sure about the proportions of butter, eggs and sugar in your recipe it doesn’t sound right for me, plus it’s too much milk.
yes to creaming butter and sugar first and then adding other ingredients. Sieve the flour, it makes a real difference for Victoria sponge.

[SnowWhitesSM]

Have you got a blender, if so cream the butter and sugar together then mix in the eggs one by one (you might need a little flour to stop it splitting) then fold the flour in with a wooden spoon.

Your recipe doesn't look right to me. I don't think you've got enough eggs. Jamie Olivers Victoria sponge is a good recipe from memory.

Usually I do 4 eggs and 6oz of butter and sugar and 8 of flour. Mix your vanilla in when creaming the sugar and butter.