I’ve been doing a series of on-line live bake-ins exclusively for visually impaired people – and even getting bakers taking part from different parts of the world.
The goal is to make enough different bakes to create a celebration tea when we are all able to mix again. So fa, we have achieved ginger biscuits, soda bread and, this week, lemon Victoria sponges. Our next session will celebrate World Baking Day on 17 May https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/world-baking-day/ – and we will try hot-water pastry for pork pies.
This week, with the joys of Zoom (and a difficult echo) a whole group creamed, folded and drizzled our delicious individual cakes. A couple of mine went over the road to cheer-up neighbours – something as quick and simple as a homebake can bring a smile to faces when we are all feeling a bit glum.
Touch is key for me with this cake: I have to feel when the butter and sugar have become light and fluffy and when the cakes are cooked – that soft sponginess. But I have also found that a temperature probe reading (literally) 98 degrees Centigrade is also a good test.
The flavour variations are endless as long as you remember that the sponge probably isn’t dense/strong enough to hold up a lot of fruit – who wants sunken cherries? Ideas might include: basic vanilla; chopped dates and ginger; lemon and orange St Clement’s; mixed spice and a few sultanas; coffee and walnut.
I’ve added a couple of handfuls of fresh raspberries (in China) and chopped coriander and chilli (in Costa Rica) – there’s no end to the madness.
It’s an easy recipe to remember: just weigh the eggs and everything else is the same – so you can make a smaller or bigger cake just as easily. Here’s my lemon drizzle version:
2 lemons, zest and juice.
1 tablespoon caster sugar.
3 eggs, weighed in their shells.
Same weight butter, softened.
Same weight caster sugar.
Same weight self-raising flour.
Gently heat lemon juice and tablespoon of sugar in microwave until the sugar is dissolving – leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to 180C, Gas 4.
Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Whisk in the eggs one at a time, each with a teaspoon of flour.
Fold in the remaining flour and lemon zest.
Spoon into a bun tin or two sponge tins or a loaf tin.
Cook for 20 minutes (probably 25 minutes for sponge tins and 30 for loaf tin).
Test cakes are cooked.
While still hot, prick with a cocktail stick (I can’t remember the last time I used one with a cherry) and then spoon the lemon juice syrup over the cakes.
Allow to cool enough to avoid burning your mouth.
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