Eggs did all the lifting in early sponge cakes, the treat honored on National Sponge Cake Day, Monday, August 23, 2027. Baking powder came much later.
When Sponge Cake Gets Its Turn
Every August 23. Who created it has never been documented.
Whisked Eggs and Royal Teas
Baking powder was invented in 1843, but it took decades to become common in cakes. Until then, sponge cakes relied on beaten eggs to rise.
Isabella Beeton’s 1861 Book of Household Management shows the method. Her Victoria sponge uses four eggs, plus butter, sugar and flour each matched to the eggs’ weight.
Whisking comes first. Then the batter is beaten for about 10 minutes to trap air, and it bakes for 20 minutes in a moderate oven.
Beeton didn’t serve a tall round cake. She spread jam or marmalade on one half of her Victoria sponge, topped it with the other and cut it into long fingers.
Her first published sponge recipe had a flaw. “A Good Sponge Cake” left out how much flour to use, The Conversation found.
Queen Victoria’s favorite
The Victoria sponge is widely thought to have been the queen’s favorite cake, English Heritage says. The classic version has raspberry jam inside and caster sugar on top.
It may have started in the nursery. Early Victorian teas featured seed cake and fruit cake, and children were steered toward plainer sponges.
Victoria ate hers with a single layer of jam at tea parties on the Isle of Wight, food historian Alysa Levene writes. An 1897 memoir adds that chocolate sponges went to court four times a week.
She didn’t bake them herself. Confectioners and pastry chefs supplied Victoria’s cakes.
A Japanese cousin
Japan’s castella has roots in Nagasaki. The Fukusaya shop, founded in 1624, is thought to have learned the recipe from the Portuguese.
Around that time, Japanese and Portuguese people mingled in the city’s streets. Fukusaya still calls itself the originator of Nagasaki castella.
Why Sponge Cake Has Its Own Day
Sponge cakes belong to a family called foam cakes. Iowa State University’s food lab manual groups them with angel food and chiffon.
What sets them apart is eggs and fat. In Iowa State’s recipes, angel cake uses only whites, sponge uses whole eggs, and chiffon adds oil and baking powder.
A 1951 University of Idaho 4-H bulletin called sponge cakes “butterless.” Judges wanted one that was “tender, fluffy, moist” and sprang back when pressed lightly.
Its “hot water sponge cake” made “a large, feathery cake from only four eggs.” Baking powder kept it from being a true sponge.
Patience was part of the method. Its recipe baked in an ungreased tube pan at 325 degrees for an hour, then cooled upside down.
Baking Ideas for August 23
- Bake Beeton’s 1861 Victoria sponge and slice it into fingers, as she did.
- Fill a sponge with raspberry jam and dust it with caster sugar, the classic finish.
- Whisk the eggs well, since they’re the only lift in a true sponge.
- Cool your cake upside down in its pan, as the Idaho bulletin advised.
- Try a chocolate sponge, a treat Victoria’s court got often.
- Pick up a slice of castella from a Japanese bakery.
- Bake an angel cake and a sponge side by side to taste what yolks add.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should sponge cakes change at high altitude?
Above 7,000 feet, the Idaho extension guide advised using 2 tablespoons less sugar.
What was Queen Victoria’s wedding cake like?
Enormous. It weighed nearly 300 pounds and cost £100 in 1840.
Did the TV show Bake Off test the classic?
Yes. In one final, Jane, Andrew and eventual winner Candice each had to make a Victoria sponge with no recipe.
Sources
- The Conversation – How to make Victoria sponge the way Queen Victoria would have eaten it
- English Heritage – Cakes (blog)
- Embassy of Japan in Singapore – The Traditional Taste of Japanese Castella
- Iowa State University – Food Preparation Lab Manual: Foam Products, Cakes
- University of Idaho Extension – 4-H Food Project: Let’s Bake (1951, PDF)