Last weekend was the annual Summer Fete at The Bratz Girls school. A few days before the big event she came home from school brandishing a leaflet listing the main events for the day and giving details of a competition being run – a cake making competition.
There were 2 categories: children to make and decorate cup-cakes, adults to make a Victoria Sponge. All 3 girls love to make cup-cakes and so I knew they would want to enter the competition……but they also decided that Mummy should enter as well!
So to add to our, as usual, hectic week I had to schedule in time to make several gross of cup-cakes with The Mouth and Hello Kitty, to be on hand whilst The Bratz Girl made hers (she’s pretty good at making cup-cakes but likes me to be there in case of emergency!) and to make a Victoria Sponge myself.
The Mouth and Hello Kitty subscribe to the school of cake decorating which states there is no such thing as too many sprinkles although for this event The Mouth did decorate 2 of her cakes with writing icing in the logo of The Bratz Girls school which I was very impressed with!
The Bratz Girl (who is coeliac) made her gluten-free cakes and then made them into butterfly cakes with some vanilla buttercream. If you haven’t made butterfly cakes then they are very simple….slice the top of a cup cake, spread buttercream on the cake, cut the slice in half and stick into the buttercream to look like butterfly wings. She added silver ball decorations for eyes and writing icing feelers to really make them look like butterflies.
So then I had to make a Victoria Sponge. After a couple of years experimenting I have got my gluten free Victoria Sponge recipe down perfectly so baking the cake was not a problem … but how to make it really special?
I have been watching The Delicious Miss Dahl
on BBC recently and the last episode “Nostalgia” had featured a Raspberry Victoria Sponge cake with a fresh raspberry jam filling. I decided to make a version of this but, as it’s the height of strawberry season here in England, substitute strawberries for raspberries.
This was the result :-
The fete was a great success – the sun shone, the girls had fun and the Parent Teacher Association made loads of money….and amazingly I WON the cake competition!!! If you want to make it here’s the recipe.
Gluten Free Orange & Strawberry Victoria Sponge
225g/8oz softened butter
225g/8oz golden caster sugar
4 free range eggs (ours come from our own chickens so I can’t give you a size but I guess “medium”)
225g/8oz Gluten free plain flour (I use Doves Farm Gluten & Wheat free Plain Flour blend which is a blend of rice, potato, tapioca, maize and buckwheat)
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
1 tsp Xanthan gum
zest from 1 large orange
1 – Cream together butter and sugar until light and creamy.
2 – Beat in eggs gradually taking care not to curdle
3 – Sift in flour together with baking powder and Xanthan gum then add orange zest. Mix well.
4 – Divide mixture between two greased and lined 8″ sandwich tins and bake for 25-30 mins at 180C/350F until firm to touch.
5 – Cool in tins for a few minutes and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
Strawberry Jam filling
300g/9oz fresh strawberries (keep a few back to decorate)
2 tbsp fresh orange juice
1 heaped tbsp golden caster sugar
Hull the strawberries and halve any large ones then put tin a saucepan with the orange juice and caster sugar and heat over a low heat for 15-20 mins then remove from heat and cool completely.
Buttercream filling
150g/6oz softened butter
150g/6oz icing sugar
juice of 1/4 an orange
zest of half an orange
Beat together butter, icing sugar, juice and zest in a bowl until smooth.
When the cake and jam are completely cool place one cake on plate or stand, spread buttercream over top. Spoon on jam then top with second cake. Sprinkle a little icing sugar over the top and then decorate with thinly sliced strawberries.
Chickens & Child Rearing 