Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I’m really after a better understanding of vanilla sponge cake, not my particular favourite. I have made several now and whilst I get compliments I feel I could improve the texture. I’m sitting in Costa eating a lemon drizzle muffin and the texture is divine, sort of clingy crumbly if you get my meaning. I follow all the rules, everything at room temperature etc, line the tins inside and out. I sometimes have problems with splitting when adding the eggs, especially on big mixes, but add a teaspoon of flour to bring it back together. However I have read that the beating activates the gluten in the flour which gives a denser cake so I’m reluctant to add too much flour whilst beating in the eggs. Is it possible to beat the cake mixture too much? Is there an additional ingredient you add to change the texture? I sometimes see that plain and SR flour are used together with baking powder but don’t really understand why versus just SR on its own? I would just like to understand why you do things/add things so I can experiment to get the perfect cake. Any tips, explanations would be greatly appreciated.
ThankQ.

Wooooah AnnieLaurie!! this will take a while to explain because you have asked several questions and each one requires a separate answer. Let’s break it down one by one:

The lemon drizzle which you enjoyed at Costas is made from a cake mix. It probably contains lots preservatives, different enhancers and emulsifiers which gives it it’s texture. Most of these additives would not be readily available to the home baker.

There are different methods of mixing cake batter. What you are describing above is the creaming method.
You are doing the right thing by having all your ingredients at room temperature. Even so, the mixture can split if the eggs are slightly colder than the butter or if they are added to quickly to the other components. If the mixture does split it can be brought back by adding a tablespoon of flour. Mix the batter on a low speed to incorporate the flour and also to prevent the gluten from stretching. When flour is beaten on a fast speed in a cake batter, the gluten becomes stretched resulting in a dense heavy cake more like bread.

Some cake recipes do ask for a mix self raising flour and plain/all purpose flour. It’s usually more self raising and half again or less of the plain. This makes for a denser cake, with better keeping properties, suitable for tiering in wedding cakes Sometimes this produces a drier more compact crumb eg maderia cake. The cake layers can be moistened with a simple syrup to make the crumb more moist.

You have also asked why baking powder is sometimes added to a self raising/plain flour mix instead of just using self raising flour. Self raising flour contains more than just baking powder. If you need extra leavening but not all the other extras in self raising add a little baking powder to get the extra lift. However you can use just self raising flour on it’s own with more baking powder. This is when using the all in one method of mixing to give the batter an extra boost. All in one method of mixing does not aerate the batter hence the addition.
Phew!!! does this help, I hope it does. x

Hi MIWL
You are an angel, a cake Angel! Thank you so much, helpful as always. I shall never look at a Costa muffin the same again and had I given it some thought it’s pretty obvious it would have to contain all those nasties us home bakers don’t want to put in our cakes. I did a bit of research myself and if you type in Google “sponge cake science” there is an interesting read by an Andy Connelly via The Guardian. I use Fairtrade golden caster sugar and this is a little courser than standard white. I shall try thinning it down further before using it which will help the aeration /fat coverage.

Once again, many thanks.
A 🙂

If you want a more muffin like texture for your cakes try the all in one method and don’t over mix the batter. Just bring it together on a low to medium speed until you have a smooth batter. You will need the additional baking powder if you use this method. x

I’ve not come across this method for sponge, only fruit type cakes. Am I melting butter down with sugar etc? Is there a common ratio that is used? Can you recommend a good recipe? Sorry more questions!

All in one method is where all the ingredients are placed into the bowl together with some extra leavening and all mixed together instead of creaming individually. The common ratio is that you weigh the eggs and their weight is used for the rest of the ingredients. Try this one it’s really easy one:
http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/495936/mary-berry-s-victoria-sandwich
Although the recipe says it doesn’t keep very well I find it last a good four days if kept in an airtight cake tin.
Melted butter is used in Genoise, it can be made without fat and referred to as fatless sponge or flan sponge.

Have you tried Mrs Jones’ victoria sponge recipe? Lots of members have made it and give excellent reviews. See the recipe and read the comments below the video,. Some of the comments are replies from Mrs Jones herself, where she advices how to make the recipe a little denser if you want to use it for wedding tiers:
http://www.cakeflix.com/online-cake-decorating-courses/mrs-joness-recipe-for-10-round-deep-sponge-cake