[Sca-cooks] OOP: Victoria Sponge Cake

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Nanna Rognvaldardottir wrote, quoting Dorothy Hartley:

> Later the Victorians added butter, which gives the sponge mixture a
> different texture, halfway to a Madeira sponge (which is compounded
> completely differently). This more solid type baked better in flat tins and
> resulted in the 'Victoria sandwich' which was spread with jam and dusted
> with sugar.

As I sit here with a cup of snarl snap arggh decaffeinated tea, I
suspect the butterless, foamy sponge is a descendant of some of the
seventeenth-and-eighteenth-century baked puddings (among others). I have
no direct experience with Victoria sponge, but it did look to me as if
it would resemble pound cake to some extent. I imagine that the
difficulty with baking it in shaped molds included a propensity to burn
at smaller corners and projections before being baked through in the
thicker portions.

It should be remembered, perhaps, that the addition of butter doesn't
necessarily preclude a cake's being a true sponge (one in which the cake
is leavened by physical aeration); it just makes it more difficult and
therefore, less likely. For example, the classic genoise sponge made
through most of Europe closely resembles the early butterless sponges
until a consignment of melted butter is folded in at the last step.

> Nowadays nearly all sponge mixtures are baked flat and miscalled
> after their fillings as 'cream sponge', 'sandwich cake', 'chocolate sponge',
> etc.; and the Victorian sandwich sponge is gradually becoming a 'layer cake'
> (which is again completely different in method and texture)."

I would submit the liklihood that "cream sponge" may conceivably have
more to do with the method, and only secondarily with the filling.
There's a tradition in America (although comparatively few Americans
other than professional bakers use the term) for making what are known
as "cream cakes": these are probably what most Americans think of when
they hear the word "cake", and are generally what is being mimicked by
most of the pseudo-cake mixes sold in boxes. These are so called not
because they contain any cream, but because the first thing you do to
make them (and it must be done correctly for the cake to be successful)
is to "cream together" butter and (usually) sugar, generally followed by
eggs, then flour and any chemical leavenings that may be used, and salt.
These dry ingredients are often sifted together, and sometimes they're
added alternately with each of the several eggs involved.

> The first Victoria sandwich recipe to appear in print was Mrs. Beeton's
> (1861). I have a facsimile of her book at home and can check out later if it
> is different from the version you posted.

Thank you; that would be wonderful! The edition of the Book of Household
Management that I have is a rather recent "coffee table" production
(1987?); it seems to use Beeton's text in support of a bunch of truly
glorious photos of nouvelle revisionist Victorian food ;  ). While the
book does claim to have the original and complete text, I wouldn't be
surprised if the observance of this qualification was a bit on the
whimsical side.

On a side note, I was surprised to see that my copy of Fance's
"Student's Technology of Breadmaking And Flour Confectionery" made
absolutely no reference to Victoria sponge, but then this vocational
school textbook from the 1950's UK (and still in print, unchanged, as
far as I know) seems to equate "cake" with fruitcake. Including, I might
add, wedding cakes, which are simply gloriously decorated fruitcakes. I
wonder whether there may be, on some level, a view of sponge cakes as
being more pudding than cake (probably distinguished by whether you make
them at home or buy them at the baker's?).

Adamantius (who remembers the faces of some of his wedding guests when
the cake was cut open)
--
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