classic victoria sponge

I got a KitchenAid mixer for Christmas from my lovely parents - which was a wonderful surprise - so I’ve been getting to know it by attempting to master my favourite cake. Tom and I are both quite partial to a Victoria sponge. In London, I had neither the equipment nor the time to make them regularly but, fortunately, there was a very reliable one we could buy at our local Sainsbury’s. But nothing beats homemade!

Last week my PhD supervisor and I took a little road trip - in the name of research but also for the Westerway Raspberry Farm, which is a quite delightful place. We picked a bucket each of raspberries and I’ve turned mine into gin (currently marinating in the pantry), breakfast yoghurt and granola parfaits, jam and as a filling for this delicious cake. One of my favourite tearooms in London, Drink Shop Do, did a lovely sponge cake with fresh raspberries in the filling. I took full advantage of the bucket of raspberries in my fridge to recreate it!

The wondrous thing about this cake is you can make the filling any flavour you please. Tom’s favourite so far is strawberry jam with buttercream icing (instead of cream), mine is blackcurrant jam with mascarpone (flavoured with a little Westerway blackcurrant syrup, our version of Ribena). I plan to try lemon curd next. The possibilities are endless.

And of course there will be those out there who will say a sponge cake is more the domain of experienced bakers - I gleefully ignore such snobbery and encourage beginners to give this a go! Whether it’s cake-making, piano or yoga, a regular practice is the best path to confidence.

Classic Victoria sponge

230g margarine (you can use unsalted butter if you prefer, but I was advised that margarine makes for a lighter sponge, and that has proved to be the case)
230g caster sugar
230g sifted self-raising flour (occasionally my hand has slipped and it’s ended up being 240g, but that’s fine)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence or extract
4 eggs

For the filling: your choice of jam and/or fresh fruit and cream/mascarpone or buttercream icing

Sifted icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 190 C. Grease two 20cm round springform cake tins (sometimes they’re called “sandwich tins”) and line the bases with baking paper.

In a large bowl, or the bowl of your KitchenAid mixer, place all the ingredients and beat together for a few minutes until you have a smooth batter.

Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins (I use a digital scale - I usually get around 470g in each one). Smooth the tops with a spatula.

Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes until the cakes are golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly in the tin before turning out on to a rack to cool completely.

To assemble, spread the mascarpone, cream or buttercream icing over the bottom of one of the sponges. Top with jam and sandwich the second sponge, bottom side down, on top.

Dust the top with icing sugar before serving.

Store in an airtight container and eat within 2 days. Which will not be a problem - send word out to your family that a sponge cake has been made, and it will be gone in no time!

If you make any of my recipes, do tag me on Instagram at @travelling_philbury - I’d love to see!

fig and ricotta cake

This autumn has been all about the quince, but last year it was all about the fig. There were a few figs getting jammier by the day on my parents’ tree and we needed to pick them before the possums got to them. I made a delightful pear and fig chutney, and this cake.

You can use any plain soft creamy cheese in place of the ricotta - I used half goats cheese and half ricotta, which worked splendidly.

I really loved this cake because it wasn’t too sweet and allowed the natural sweetness of the figs to shine through. My parents, who like things sweeter, weren’t that fussed - so by all means add more sugar if you have a similar palate!

Autumnal slightly savoury fig and ricotta cake

Based on a recipe in Books for Cooks Favourite Recipes 4, 5 and 6

2 tablespoons caster sugar
6 fresh ripe figs, stalks trimmed, cut in half
175 g unsalted butter
150 g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200 g ricotta (or a combination of ricotta and soft goats cheese)
2 large eggs
175 g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
A little apricot jam, for glazing

Preheat the oven to 180 C (fan-forced). Grease and line a 24cm springform cake tin. Butter the baking paper on the base of the tin and sprinkle with the 2 tablespoons of caster sugar. Arrange the halved figs, cut side down, over the sugar.

Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and ricotta (or other cheese you’re using) together until creamy and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the flour and baking powder and gently fold in.

Spread the batter carefully over the figs.

Bake in the oven until golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean - roughly 40-45 minutes, depending on the strength of your oven. Leave to cool completely in the tin.

To decorate, turn out the cake on to a plate or stand, fig side up. Melt the apricot jam over a low heat until soft and liquid, then brush over the top of the cake. The figs will glisten beautifully.

You can dust the top with icing sugar once you’ve glazed too, but I didn’t.

Cut into slices and enjoy with a hot cup of tea.

My figs were quite little! Hope yours are bigger.

spiced zucchini and apple loaf

Might not look like much - but it’s good!

I’m making the most of my zucchini glut, as I’m sure you’ve been able to tell!

I’m trying to ration my eggs and butter carefully at the moment, so I decided to make this cake vegan and see what the results were. And it was spectacular.

It’s a supremely moist cake anyway, thanks to the zucchini, but with the apple sauce involved too, the outside of the loaf is crusty and the middle is almost custardy. So it’s perfect for dessert as well as alongside your morning or afternoon cup of coffee.

And don’t skimp on the spices - it may seem like a lot but the whole point is that the flavour of the spices is very pronounced in this cake. If you prefer the flavours to be subtler, halve the quantities I’ve listed below. You can use any combination of baking spices you like (mixed spice, ground nutmeg, etc) but what I’ve listed below was a particularly good combination, for a spice lover like me. I’d never put black pepper in a cake before and was amazed by how just three turns of the pepper grinder gave it such a pleasant heat.

I hope you give it a try!

Spiced zucchini and apple loaf

Inspired by a similar recipe in A Basket By the Door by Sophie Hansen

Roughly 500g grated zucchini (courgette), about 3 large ones (you can even use marrow, just cut the woolly middle bit out first)
250g wholemeal plain flour or wholemeal spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
A generous grating of fresh nutmeg
3 turns of the black pepper grinder
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g brown sugar
6 heaped tablespoons apple sauce or puree
100ml olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180 C (fan-forced). Grease and line a large loaf tin or two small ones.

Squeeze as much liquid out of the grated zucchini as you can.

Place the squeezed grated zucchini in a bowl and add the flour, spices and salt, stir to combine. Add the vanilla, brown sugar, apple sauce and oil, and stir together until well combined (though try not to overmix, naturally).

Pour the batter into your prepared tin or tins, and bake in the oven for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. My oven is hotter than most so I checked mine after 45 minutes.

Allow the loaf to cool slightly then remove from the tin on to a cake rack to cool completely.

As it makes a large loaf, or two small ones, you can also happily freeze it in slices to defrost in the toaster whenever you need some comforting home-baked goodness. Which, let’s face it, in the times of coronavirus, is pretty much every day!

Enjoy it fresh or toasted, spread with butter, ricotta or left plain, and absolutely with a steaming cup of tea or coffee alongside.

super moist apple cake

There is nothing like the smell of a cake baking in the oven to make you feel cosy, snug and homely. Over Easter I had some apples from my aunt’s tree to use up and this recipe made great use of them. I am not a fan of cake recipes that are too complicated or require too many bowls - one-bowl cake recipes are definitely more my thing. I get a bit grumpy having to mix dry and wet ingredients separately, and I very rarely make anything that requires you to separate and whisk egg yolks and whites separately either. Gah! Too much work. Just give me cake.

Hope you enjoy this one!

Super moist apple cake

Based on this recipe

150g butter, melted
420g stewed apple
1/2 cup brown sugar (or a different kind of sugar or sweetener, depending on your tastes/preferences)
2 eggs
2 cups self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom or nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 160 C (fan-forced). Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.

Nice and easy - place all ingredients in a bowl and mix together until combined and no lumps of flour or brown sugar remain, taking care not to over-mix. Place in the oven for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin before slicing and serving. It keeps well and can also be frozen in individual slices.

I like to serve it with a dollop of Greek yoghurt and, if they’re in season, slices of fresh fig.

inner mary berry bakewell slice

With the baking hot weather (no pun intended) we've had in the UK this summer, I have barely turned my oven on. Meals have been mostly salads, breads, cheeses, dips, anything that involved minimal cooking. Vegetables picked from my garden which required blanching in boiling water at the most. 

But then came the most welcome cool change, and I found myself basically turning into Mary Berry last Sunday, baking a cake and a slice to use up the last of the butter, sugar and jam that had found their way into my kitchen after a wonderful visit from my parents. 

In fact, it was my mum who suggested a Bakewell slice to use up all the jam. I'm very partial to a Bakewell, so immediately thought this was a brilliant idea. But, as I say, had to wait for the all-pervading heat to dissipate slightly before I could even entertain the idea of turning the oven on.

I love almonds but I'm not overly fond of a strong, synthetic almond taste that you often find with marzipan and the like. So I used up a bag of ground almonds very happily but forwent the almond essence that was in the original recipe. By all means include it instead of vanilla if you're an almond lover! 

After Tom and I had enjoyed this fresh out of the oven, I knew the solution to avoiding temptation all week was to take the rest of the slice into my office on Monday to share with my colleagues. I don't often take my baking in, as I use a lot less sugar than most people are used to, as that's what I prefer. But to my surprise, the slice was hoovered up and I got so many compliments. So if you're looking to win some brownie points in your office, seriously, make this slice and take it in. I have already been asked to make it again! 

Bakewell slice

Adapted from this recipe

1 sheet ready-rolled shortcrust pastry
Roughly 1 cup (a little less is fine) jam of your choice (I used a mixture of raspberry and strawberry)
200g organic unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
4 eggs
150g ground almonds
100g self-raising flour
Dash of vanilla extract
Flaked almonds for the topping

Preheat the oven to 180 C (fan). Unroll your pastry sheet, roll it out a little with a rolling pin and then place it, including the baking paper it comes with, into a baking tray of roughly 30 x 20 cm size. Spread the jam over the pastry.

Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well combined. Add the almonds, flour and vanilla and stir well. Spread this cake mixture evenly over the jam and pastry.

You can either scatter the top with flaked almonds now and just keep an eye on it and cover with foil once the almonds get brown, or you can add the almonds when the slice has about 10 minutes baking time left. If you choose the latter, they won't be embedded into the cake as much as the mixture won't be wet any more. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. For me, I can't stand a burned nut so I'd rather go with the second option and err on the side of caution! 

Place the tin in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown and the cake has risen nicely. If you choose the second option with the flaked almonds, remove after 20 minutes and scatter the flaked almonds over the surface, then return to the oven for the rest of the cooking time.

Allow the slice to cool in the tin. You can ice it, as the original Delicious recipe suggests, but I was happy (and found it sweet enough) with just plain flaked almonds on top. 

Cut into slices, take it into your office and watch your popularity soar! It's absolutely perfect with a hot cup of tea or coffee.