[Sca-cooks] OOP: Victoria Sponge Cake

[Philip & Susan Troy]

rcmann4 at earthlink.net wrote:
>
> Help please, with a request for my mom.  She went to England last year
> and had afternoon tea at Brown's Hotel in London.  There she fell in love
> with a cake that I have identified as Victoria Sponge Cake.  It was served
> layer style, with a jam filling and some kind of frosting/icing on top.  Does
> anyone have a recipe that will come close to what is served at Brown's, so I
> can make some for her?  I've found a number of recipes on the web, but not
> all of the Victoria sponge cakes fit her description.  I don't know (and Mom
> can't remember) what kind of jam, kind of frosting, etc.

This sounds like something that would either be in Mrs. Beeton, possibly
Fance's "Student's Technology of Breadmaking and Flour Confectionary",
maybe Peck's "Art of Fine Baking", perhaps one or two others on my
shelf. I'm not quite sure how to proceed, though, unless we assume
(rightly or wrongly) that Mrs. Beeton, being herself Victorian,
presented the Ur-cake, and take it from there. Whether or not Brown's
Hotel uses a recipe like that I don't know, but I was under  the
impression that presentation notwithstanding, Victoria Sponge was pretty
much a basic preparation that would have only minor differences between
examples. Sort of like how all pound cakes are a little bit different,
but generally they're all slightly dense, fine-crumb, cream cakes with a
similar degree of sweetness.

Let's see what I can find; will try to post later this evening.

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98