It feels like it’s been ages since I made an iced sponge cake; it’s something we enjoy mid-afternoon with a cuppa. I recently replenished the stock of dried fruits and nuts in my pantry so I decided to bake a pecan sponge layer cake with maple syrup buttercream frosting.
During lockdown I couldn’t get my hands on any flour, so I stocked up on different types that I bought online direct from Shipton Mill. One was their soft cake and pastry flour; the consistency of the cake was much lighter as a result. I won’t be going back to plain old self-raising in a hurry!
Pecans are probably my favourite nuts to cook with however, you can try this recipe using walnuts or brazils instead.
I have a very sweet tooth, so the amount of frosting suits my taste. If you think it’s too much, you could always use 100 grams each of butter and icing sugar and 50ml of maple syrup.
It’s pretty much the best cake we’ve had in a long time, lovely with coffee or tea.
- 175g/6oz butter, softened
- 175g/6oz caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 175g/6oz self-raising flour, sifted
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 50g/1¾oz pecans
- 300g/ icing (powdered) sugar, sifted
- 150g/ butter, softened
- 100ml maple syrup
- 8 pecan halves
- Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC/325ºF/Gas mark 3
- Grease & line two 18cm/7-inch round cake tins
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter & sugar until light and fluffy
- In a measuring jug, whisk the eggs and mix in the vanilla extract
- Add the eggs, bit by bit, into the butter/sugar mixture stirring constantly
- Carefully fold in the flour in 3 or 4 rounds, trying not to lose the airiness in the mixture
- Chop the pecans, fairly finely, and carefully fold them into the mixture
- Divide the batter equally between the two prepared cake tins, gently levelling the tops with the back of a spoon
- Place them on the centre shelf and bake for 30 minutes or until the tops have turned golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes away clean
- Put the cakes, still in their tins, on a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Then, remove them from the tins, peel off the parchment liners and allow to cool completely
- Combine the softened butter and icing sugar
- Stir in the maple syrup until the mixture is light and fluffy
- Set aside while the cake layers cool completely
- Use about a ⅓ of the frosting to sandwich the two cakes together
- Spread the rest on the top and sides of the sandwiched layers and stud the top with the 8 pecan halves
- Instead of self-raising, I used cake flour to which I added 2 tsps baking powder
Cakes & Bakes: Rhubarb and cream sponge cake
This week’s recipe, a rhubarb and cream sponge cake was a winner. However, there are a few things I’d do a little differently next time. Don’t worry, I’ve altered the recipe below to take these factors into consideration.
I can be a very impatient person; I really love rhubarb, but I should have waited a couple more weeks to let it grow before I harvested stems from our one and only little plant. I picked almost all of it for the rhubarb and vanilla sponge pudding last month. I could have done with at least another stick for making my rhubarb syrup.
Another thing, I think a finished sponge sandwich looks neater and better if you bake a single cake and slice it horizontally, than if two separate cakes are cooked and layered one on top of the other… that’s just me. However, on this occasion, I think the amount of cake mix in a single tin was too much and too heavy and the weight of it hindered the rise and made the texture a bit dense.
One thing that I am glad that I did was use up a spare container of extra thick double cream that Morrison’s delivered as a substitute for whipping cream. It was like slathering clottted cream over the rhubarb syrup… yum!
All in all, I think it was a success; it was all eaten in a couple of days. I’ll make it again, with my little adjustments… and perhaps buy another rhubarb crown or two for future years!
Like my rhubarb and cream sponge cake recipe? Save it to Pinterest
- 8 oz/220g caster sugar
- 8 oz/220g butter or margarine (at room temperature)
- 4 large eggs
- 8 oz/220g cake flour, sifted
- 2½tsp baking powder
- 1½tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2tsps vanilla extract
- 2 large sticks of rhubarb, cut into 1cm slices
- 3tbsps caster sugar
- 1tbsp water
- 300ml/10½ fl oz whipping cream
- Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC325ºF/Gas mark 3
- Line or lightly grease two 20cm/8" loose-based cake tins
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter until light and airy
- Lightly beat the eggs and vanilla extract in a 1-litre/1¾pt measuring jug
- Pour the beaten egg into the sugar & butter mixture in 3 stages - mixing in thoroughly each time - stir in a tablespoon of the flour if the mixture looks like it will separate
- Into a medium mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb
- Fold the flour into the mixture, taking care not to knock the air out
- Add equal amounts of the mixture to the 2 prepared tins, level off and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes
- When cooked leave in the tins for a minute before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely
- Place the sliced rhubarb evenly on the bottom of a pan sprinkle over the caster sugar and water
- Over a medium heat, bring the pan up to a simmer - stirring gently to allow the sugar to dissolve - for 5-7 minutes until the rhubarb has softened but hasn't lost its shape
- While still hot, spoon the rhubarb and syrup over one of the sponge layers. Allow to cool
- Whip the cream and spoon it generously and evenly over the rhubarb before placing the other sponge layer on top
- Dredge with icing (powdered) sugar and serve
- Refrigerate to store
Cakes & Bakes: Coconut and lime cake
Inspiration for our weekly Cakes & Bakes posts come from all manner of places. This week’s was slightly out of the ordinary – a scrap of crumpled old paper with Justin’s handwriting on it, that fell out of a book whilst we were tidying some shelves.
He’d jotted down a recipe for a coconut and lime cake. I showed it to him but he couldn’t remember doing it or where he’d, in fact, copied it from; I guessed it might have been an episode of a Rachel Allen cookery program from years ago maybe. I’m probably wrong!
The notes he made were pretty vague. The instructions read thus: “Mix all ingredients together. Bake in cake tins. Gas Mark 3 → 30-35 mins”.
Delia’s All-in-one sponge method is pretty similar; however, with the addition of lime juice, I thought that the mixture would be prone to curdling if I just chucked it all in together. In the end, I did the classic creaming of the butter & sugar, adding the eggs (pre-beaten) a little at a time interspersed with a serving spoon of the flour, then the juice, followed by the sifted flour/baking powder and dessicated coconut.
The other thing I did differently was to use a single cake tin instead of dividing the mixture equally between two. I merely upped the cook time from 30 minutes to an hour, keeping the temperature the same. Sometimes I prefer to simply slice the one cake horizontally through the middle; I find that it sandwiches back together better after spreading the icing.
Oh, and I didn’t have any coconut milk powder (the original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons) – I substituted it with powdered skimmed milk and a little coconut extract. It worked for me!
Finally, I decided against the water icing topping and went instead for a butter icing. I think it turned out brilliantly. It’s an attractive, ‘summery’ looking cake. The combination of coconut and lime is a well established cooking classic – sweet, yet zingy. I can vouch for the fact that it works really well in this sponge cake manifestation!
Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest
- 170g/6oz butter, softened
- 170g/6oz caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- juice of 2 limes
- 170g/6oz self-raising flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- 60g/2oz dessicated coconut
- 285g/10oz icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 50g/1¾oz butter, softened
- 2tbsp lime juice
- Zest of 2 limes
- Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF/Gas mark 3
- Grease and line a 15cm/6" loose-bottomed cake tin with baking parchment
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and the sugar
- In a measuring jug, lightly beat the eggs
- Pour the eggs into the butter/sugar mixture in 3 stages and mix in, with a serving spoon of the flour (to prevent curdling)
- Mix in the lime juice
- Fold in the dry ingredients (flour/baking powder/dessicated coconut)
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, levelling out the surface
- Bake for 50 minutes to an hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean
- Allow to cool in its tin for 5 minutes before removing it and letting it cool completely on a wire rack
- Sift the icing sugar into a bowl to remove any lumps
- Add the butter and combine well
- Add the lime juice, a tablespoon at a time, until the required consistency is achieved
- Sprinkle over the lime zest and serve
Cakes & Bakes: Swiss roll
Our food cupboard is full to bursting with last year’s home-made jams, jellies and other preserves. This year’s preserves have no place to live! One of the best ways to use up a fair amount of some of that jelly is to make a Swiss roll. Any excuse to make cake!
If you look on the internet, you’ll find a lot of debate about what constitutes a ‘proper’ Swiss roll. Vanilla sponge or chocolate sponge? Jam on its own or jam and whipped cream together? Whipped cream or buttercream?
For the purposes of this post (and our own personal preference) we’re going vanilla sponge with raspberry jelly.
You can buy a specialised Swiss roll cake tin for the job, but I’ve used a large, shallow baking sheet. I like my roll to have thinner, but a greater number of layers.
To attain a lovely, light sponge, cake flour is preferred. It’s much more widely available in the USA, but you can knock up a decent approximation yourself. For every 130 grams / 4¼oz of flour, remove 2 tablespoons and replace it with 2 tablespoons of cornflour. Just make sure you sift them together really well to combine.
There are a couple of tips for a successful rolling stage. Roll the sponge whilst it’s still warm, allow it to cool, unroll it, spread the jam/jelly/cream/buttercream and roll it back up again. The other tip is to make a straight, shallow groove along the entire width, about 1cm from the edge from which you begin the roll to help get it… rolling. Perhaps my photo above can better explain what I mean!
Delicious with an afternoon cup of tea – or served as a dessert with whipped cream.
Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest
- 4 eggs, separated
- 125g/4¼oz caster sugar + 2 tbsp extra for sprinkling
- ½tsp vanilla extract
- 50g/1¾oz butter, melted
- 130g/4½oz cake flour
- ¼tsp fine salt
- Almost a full jar of jam or soft-set jelly
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
- Grease and line the bottom and sides of a Swiss roll tin or large baking tray with parchment paper
- Sift the flour(s) and salt into a mixing bowl from a height to incorporate air
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the caster sugar, vanilla extract and the egg yolks until the mixture is pale, airy and shiny
- Whisk in the melted butter
- Fold the flour carefully into this mixture, trying not to beat too much air out of the mixture. Set aside
- In another mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks (use a stand mixer/electric whisk for ease and speed)
- Gently fold the whites into the mixture in three stages
- Pour the mixture into the lined tin and tilt from side to side to cover evenly
- Gently bang the tin on to the workspace a couple of times to get rid of any air bubbles
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and springs back when pressed with a finger
- Spread a clean, damp tea towel on a work surface
- Cut a piece of greaseproof a little larger than the tin, lay it on the tea towel and sprinkle over the extra caster sugar
- Loosen the sponge around the edges and then invert on to the paper with one of the short sides facing you
- Trim the 4 edges using a bread knife to neaten
- Gently score a straight line from end to end around 1cm from the edge closest to you
- Whilst still warm, roll the sponge up as tightly as possible, rolling the paper in with it using the damp tea towel as an aid. Leave rolled up tightly until cooled
- Unwrap, flatten gently and spread with jam. Roll back up without the paper
- Slice to serve (with whipped cream and fresh summer berries)
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