duch*ess of Cornwall shares her Victoria Sponge recipe (2024)

FAQs

Did the Queen like Victoria Sponge? ›

Food historian Alysa Levene reported in her 2016 bookCake: A Slice of Historythat the Queen was in fact particularly fond of this simple yet delicious sponge cake and enjoyed having a slice with her afternoon tea.

Victoria sponge

The recipe evolved from the classic pound cake made with equal proportions of flour, fat, sugar and eggs. The invention of baking powder in 1843 by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in Birmingham allowed the cake to rise higher than was previously possible.

Victoria's elder half sister, Feodora (and her older half brother, Carl) were the children of her mother's 1st husband Emich Karl, Prince of Leiningen. Since they were not descendants of George III neither were in the line of succession.

Arthur (Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught 1850-1942)

Arthur was the best behaved of the children and the Queen's favourite. He had a very active imagination, liked reading and playing with his toy soldiers.

The main ingredients in sponge cakes are egg, sugar and flour. The addition of air is another key ingredient in the sponge, which gets introduced through the mixing process.

The primary difference is that angel cake relies solely on egg whites and contains no fats, while sponge cake uses both egg yolks and whites and can often include fats like butter.

Meaning of sponge cake in English

a soft, light cake that is made with eggs, sugar, flour, and no fat and for which the egg whites and yolks (= the yellow parts) are beaten separately before they are added to the mixture: Try our recipe for a classic American sponge cake.

If the ingredients are at different temperatures then they may not combine properly and the cake will be dense. If the eggs are stored in the fridge then remove them several hours before using, so they are properly at room temperature.

Oil Cake. Oil cakes follow the same principles as butter cakes, but use oil as the source of fat. Because oil is liquid at room temperature, oil cake recipes skip the step of creaming the fat and sugar; usually the oil is incorporated into the wet ingredients, which are whisked or folded into the dry ingredients.

If you need to check on the cakes, try not to open the oven door until just before the end of the baking time, as a blast of cold air from opening the door can cause the cakes to sink if the centre if they have not quite set.

Did the Queen have a Favourite cake? ›

Queen Elizabeth's Favorite Cake: Chocolate Biscuit Cake.

Victoria and Albert's engagement

The cousins were introduced by their uncle, Leopold I (1790 - 1865), King of the Belgians. In their memoirs, both Albert and Victoria record that they almost instantly fell in love.

According to a tell-all biography of Victoria composed by “a member of the Royal household”, she was particularly fond of “chocolate sponges, plain sponges, wafers of two or three different shapes, langues de chat, biscuits and drop cakes of all kinds, tablets, petit fours, princess and rice cakes, pralines, almond ...

King Charles III has long been known to favour a fruit cake (unlike his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, whose favourite cake was a chocolate biscuit cake - Charles can't stand chocolate!) and so I thought I'd share with you my favourite fruit cake recipe.