How to make a sponge cake taste delicious

[LemonChiffon]

I have to make a vanilla sponge cake this evening. I use a basic sponge recipe and buttercream icing, and it always tastes kind of 'meh'. But I went to a wedding a while ago and they served sponge cake, and it was absolutely delicious! What is the secret to great tasting sponge cake?

Thanks in advance!

(also I've now written 'sponge' so many times the word looks weird! 😂)

I’m not sure what kind of sponge you are talking about but if you follow the basic recipes that should give you good results. One tip I’ve learned along the way with Victoria sponge is to use baking spread or margarine, and not butter. Also, don’t use sugar substitutes. Make sure that you beat the sugar into the fat for five minutes. That will make sure that you get a really good rise and improve the texture of the cake. If you do that, and use the right size tin and the right temperature and your cake should taste delicious.

I always use golden caster sugar now - I find it has a bit more taste

Vanilla essence in the cake, jam for filling.

Painting a layer of sugar syrup on the sponges before sandwiching together can give a dry-ish sponge more oomph - it's often why wedding cakes taste so much lusher.

Good quality vanilla

Add one or two extra egg yolks.

Ditch the buttercream and just put good quality jam in the middle.

I often use 25% ground almonds and 75% flour, but you'd need to be sure of allergies.

4 oz SR flour
4 oz butter or good quality marg
4 oz caster sugar
2 eggs

Or multiples there of - keep to the ratio (ie 6,6,6,3/8,8,8,4) if you want a bigger cake. If you're younger than 60 you'll have to convert to metric yourself :)

The quality of the eggs makes a huge difference. A friend of mine has her own hens that have free rein over her garden and those eggs are amazing. They make a wonderful cake. Also I would go for butter rather than marg and just put jam or jam mixed with cream in the middle.

In my opinion -
always butter, never marge
fresh eggs
use the all-in-one method
vanilla essence
whip the buttercream so it's more like a mousse than a dolloper and put a little bit of milk in it to help, also good if this has a little bit of flavouring in it but depends on the flavour of your sponge/jam
good thick jam with plenty of flavour (ie, not the cheapest, seed-free jelly type stuff). Lemon curd is brilliant too.

Proper fresh eggs that are really free range. They will be small so you might need more.

I also surprised myself and found stork tasted better than actual butter

I wonder if it had ground almonds in it in place of some of the flour.

Mine always turned out as Victoria sponge biscuits until I bought the first Bake Off book and it's the first recipe in there. Basically you need an electric hand mixer- mine cost about £9.99 in Sainsbury's, best buy ever.

First you whisk the fuck out of the eggs - and you use four eggs, by the way. Then you whisk the fuck out of the softened butter. Measure out the flour and sugar. Add the sugar and 1/2 a teaspoon vanilla essence to the butter and whisk the fuck out of it again. Add the whisked eggs gradually to the butter/sugar mixture while whisking, and add the odd spoonful of the flour to stop it curdling. Then once the eggs are incorporated add the rest of the flour but fold it in, don't whisk.

An all in one sponge can work - just bung everything in and whisk the fuck out of it, but the above method will make it really floofy and light.

I sometimes do this if I need a cake that has a bit more structural integrity. I find it can make the sponge a bit denser, but doesn't really affect the flavour.

Bit of ground almonds makes it taste far better IMO, and last longer without drying out, which may make it popular for wedding cakes.

Don’t forget salt.

I am definitely a butter not marg person. I also use salted butter and often add an extra teaspoon of baking powder to make sure I get a really good rise. Proper (expensive, sadly) vanilla extract. I use Nigella's Victoria Sponge recipe but it's pretty much just the classic recipe.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/victoria-sponge

I usually use salted butter. I go for jam + buttercream in the middle though jam and whipped cream is also excellent.

Use excellent butter. Stork or other margarine will make a lighter sponge but at the expense of taste. Add a dash of vanilla to the cake batter. (Or lemon zest, or whatever flavour you like)

Buy good quality vanilla extract or paste, not essence or flavouring. It does make a difference.

Beat loads at the creaming stage, beat as little as possible at the Adding Flour stage.

If you overbake a cake, as a PP says you can partially recover it by using a pastry brush to apply a simple sugar syrup (flavoured if you like)

for buttercream, beat the butter for several minutes before adding the icing sugar to get a nicer texture.

I prefer butter but my mum uses Stork or similar and her cakes are good.

Agree with pp that good eggs (I use organic)
and serious whisking or mixing in the mixer are important. Basically, use the best quality, fresh ingredients. If you use jam and cream, use organic cream and best quality jam. It’s such a plain cake that these things really make a difference.

My mother always taught me to weigh the eggs and use the same amount of flour, caster sugar and Stork as the weight of the eggs. Beat the sugar and stork for at least 5 mins until it is really fluffy, the beat in the eggs, then fold in the flour gently. A splash of vanilla paste with the eggs goes down well. I use a good quality jam or our home made lemon curd to sandwich it together. And make sure the ingredients including eggs are at room temperature.
We are lucky we have 4 chickens that free range and produce the most splendid eggs....

Vanilla extract or paste beaten into the eggs helps enhance the flavour
Using vanilla sugar in place of some caster sugar does too
Room temp ingredients, weigh the eggs as base for all other ingredients plus 1 egg weight extra in flour
Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy but don't overbeat, add beaten eggs one at a time (two or three tablespoons) and add a tablespoon of flour between to stop mixture splitting
Fold in the rest of the dry ingredients

If using traditional cake tins, grease and flour them to stop them sticking, not just grease

Fully cool sponge at room temp

I have seen a chef on Instagram say that the secret to a great Victoria sandwich ( as well as butter, real vanilla and good eggs) is to use same amounts as normal, then whisk eggs and sugar together until very light fluffy and pale, melt the butter, whisk in to egg mix in a very slow stream (over 2 minutes) then very very gently fold in flour. Don’t use self raising, use plain and add 11% of the flours weight in baking powder. Sounds very technical but he says it makes the best sponge! I am yet to try but I am going to do this for my next one. Oh and whip double cream into the butter cream for filling, makes it less sweet but mmmm lovely (I have done this)

What recipe/method/ingredients are you using at the moment? I actually think half stork half butter is the best of both worlds for a victoria sponge type recipe. Whisked fatless sponge is another story! There are so many different variations that its hard to tell why the wedding cake you had was better, mind you a better type of buttercream like swiss meringue BC can make a big difference to a cake.

Wow this is all amazing! I knew Mumsnet would be able to help 😀

I usually use a 666 and 3 recipe. It's for a children's party so I think buttercream would be better than jam (at least, my daughter doesn't like jam!).

I would like to try ground almonds but would worry about allergies, so have to try that one another time.

I'm going to try lots of these tips. I will let you know how it turns out!

Stork is better than butter IMO

Swiss Meringue butter cream takes everything to a different level. It's amazing.