The brilliant science hack for making the best Victoria sponge

The classic cake that’s fit for a queen and loved by baking nerds.

Perfect-Victoria-sponge-article

There are two things I love in this world: sponge cake and science about sponge cake. Sponge cakes have the simplest ingredient list, yet have so much science and technique behind them (I’m pretty sure I learn something new about sponge cake at least once a week). 

Recently, Australian-British chef John Torode (of UK MasterChef fame) spoke on an English morning TV show about his go-to formula for making the perfect Victoria sponge. 

It doesn’t require any fancy ingredients or tools, just some scales and some butter, sugar, flour and eggs. 

I’m intrigued!

How to make the best Victoria Sponge cake

A classic Victoria sponge comprises very basic ingredients, so what makes the perfect cake all comes down to weighing your eggs. 

John says: “To make your Victoria sponge properly, all you’ve got to do is weigh your eggs. “If you weigh your eggs, the weight of your eggs then is the amount of sugar, butter and flour to make your Victoria sponge.”

Okay… quick maths lesson.

To make a regular-sized Victoria sponge, you need two eggs: a normal egg weighs around 55-60g. So, two eggs come to about 120g. 

That 120g dictates the weight of the rest of your ingredients: 120g flour, 120g sugar and 120g butter.

This formula works for any-sized Victoria sponge, so if you need something bigger you can use more eggs and adjust the weight of your flour, butter and sugar accordingly. 

You simply beat the butter and sugar, add the eggs one at a time, fold in the flour and some vanilla and bake. 

Et voilà, you’ve got a Victoria sponge cake fit for a queen (or me). 

Our traditional Victoria sponge cake recipe

No need to weigh your eggs for this one, we’ve done the hard work for you. Our Victoria sponge basically follows the same formula John spoke about. It’s the perfect balance between a light sponge and a moist, dense cake that can hold up mountains of cream and jam super well.

Check out our Victoria sponge cake recipe

We’re all about the pavlova theory too

Since baking is a science, you’ll find that a whole range of our favourite bakes are formulas. Making the perfect pavlova comes down to a simple ratio of egg white to sugar. You’ll seriously never mess up the Christmas pav again. 

Originally published as The brilliant science hack for making the best Victoria sponge