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Intro

Disclaimer: This is NOT my recipe, it’s an adaptation of one of The Countess of Carnarvon’s recipes from her At Home at Highclere: Entertaining at The Real Downton Abbey book. My mom picked up a copy of this book for me earlier this year before having to emergency repatriate due to COVID-19, cutting my parent’s trip short abruptly...I made this with my Roseberry Jam instead of standard strawberry jam, but feel free to use whatever red-fruit-jam you have!

I chose to adapt and cook this recipe because it reminds me of my travels through Scotland.  I planned a long solo trip in Scotland back in 2017 as a gift to myself for making it into grad school.  I started in Edinburgh, traveled West through the countryside and onto a ferry to Islay.  I spent a couple days in Islay distillery-hopping and then ended up back in the mainland in a small town called Auchterarder (near Perth) to stay at one of my favorite hotels, the Gleneagles Hotel.  

On the distillery-heavy part of this trip, I had a tour guide and driver because I wasn’t trying to figure out driving on the opposite side of the road by myself — plus, whiskey — and we made lots of stops while driving through this vast country.  We hit Linlithgow Palace, Stirling Castle, and Auchentoshan Distillery on Day 1, but also passed through the Loch Lomond area.  Loch Lomond was BEAUTIFUL and my driver, Paul (who picked me on our first day wearing a kilt btw), made a quick stop in a small town to grab a bite to eat.  He took me to a small cafe to grab some coffees but also pointed out this cake behind the counter, saying it was particularly good at this cafe.  It turned out to be a Victoria Sponge Cake; we grabbed a slice to go each and, since we had a little time before the ferry, we drove to chill somewhere along the coast of the Loch.  The Loch was so still and peaceful and I have such clear memories of quietly watching the water, breathing the crisp misty air, and eating this cake.

The Victoria Sponge Cake itself is nothing terribly fancy, it’s mostly just a sponge cake with fresh whipped cream, a layer of strawberry jam and powdered sugar, but something about the simplicity of the cake and chilling by this beautiful lake with this guy in a kilt was so magical to me —that and the fact that I was about to hit up some of my favorite distilleries over the next couple of days haha.  This memory is one of my “happy places.”

More about the origins of this cake — the book says that this is called the Victoria Sponge Cake because, as a child, Queen Victoria wasn’t allowed to eat sweets that much so when she became fully reigning Queen, she made pastries and sweets a trendy and popular addition to the list of snacks enjoyed with afternoon tea.  In fact, Queen Victoria made afternoon tea (and having some sweets with your tea) an official practice and started dressing up in formal wear during this meal-between-meals.  I don’t know if you’ve ever had afternoon/high tea but it’s definitely VERY filling.

Adapted into cups, TBSP, tsp, etc. Makes 10 servings:

• 4 medium (or 3 XL) eggs, brought to room temp

• 1 cup unsalted butter + more for greasing

• 1 cup powdered sugar + more for dusting, sifted

• 1 cup self-raising flour, sifted

• 2 level tsp baking powder

• 1 pint heavy whipping cream (or store-bought and ready-made whipped cream)

• ¾ cup Roseberry Jam (or regular strawberry jam)

• You’ll also need: two 8-inch cake tins and would recommend an electric whisk unless you’re using store-bought whipped cream

1. Preheat oven to 350° F

2. Microwave butter for 30 seconds (it should be half-melted) in a large mixing bowl, then add the eggs, sifted sugar & flour, and baking powder; mix well to combine $

3. Grease 2 8-in cake tins and divide the batter into the tins #

4. Bake on the middle shelf for 25 minutes; do NOT open the oven door while they’re cooking or else they will sink and fall and you will be very sad

5. The cakes should be a nice golden-brown and coming away from the edge of the tins once done baking; remove from the oven and let cool IN the tins for ~ 5 min

6. After the cakes have cooled for a bit, flip the cakes out onto a wire rack 

7. Whisk the heavy whipping cream until they form soft peaks while the cakes are cooling

8. Once the cakes have fully cooled, spread a generous amount of on top of one of the cakes; spread (or pipe if you fancy) the whipped cream over the jam and place the other cake on top so the jam & whipped cream are sandwiched between the two cakes

9. Dust the top of the cake with some powdered sugar

$ I don’t have a stand mixer so I used a wooden spoon but the recipe says you can use a stand or hand-held electric mixer

# Since I’m not a Duchess, I only have 1 cake tin so I had to bake this twice in the same tin

Enjoy with some tea or coffee with another dollop of whipped cream on the side. It’s the perfect snack any time of day (:

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