This is the good old-fashioned, popular and adaptable mix for any type of cake, cupcake or speciality cake you want to make. Learn how to make a good Vicky sponge and the world’s your oyster (or cake!)
8 oz Margarine (softened)
8 oz Caster Sugar
4 Eggs
8 oz SR Flour
Vanilla Essence
One 8 inch, deep tin or two 8 inch sandwich tins - greased and lined
· Beat the marge and sugar together until soft, light and creamy. By that, I really do mean beat it - 9 times out of 10 you’ll find that the reason a cake hasn’t risen enough to be light and airy is simply because you’ve not beaten it enough at this stage – you need to get loads and loads of air into the mix. Put your mixer onto medium and just walk away and do something else for a while – in other words, don’t be impatient!
· Beat the eggs in a separate jug and add the vanilla. With the mixer turning, gradually add these to the butter. Turn off the mixer.
· Sieve the flour into cake mix and gently fold in – this is where you DON”T beat! You do not want to lose any of the air you’ve just added.
· *** Add any additional flavourings at this stage***
· Pour into cake tins
· Bake at 180C/ Gas 4 for 30 minutes or longer if you’ve used one deep tin.
*** Flavouring ideas ***
Coffee & Walnut -1 Tbsp of dissolved coffee granules and a handful of crumbled walnuts
Chocolate – 2 heaped Tbsps of cocoa powder dissolved in HOT water. NEVER add dried cocoa powder as it will suck all the moisture out of your cake! Add a drop of coffee too as this will enhance the cocoa flavour.
Lemon & Poppyseed – 2 Tbsps lemon juice, grated zest of a lemon and a 2 Tbsps of poppyseeds.
Cherry & Almond – A drop of Almond essence, 2 tbsps ground almonds and 2 oz glace cherries. Roll the cherries in flour then add them last by poking them in through the top of the mix once it’s in the cake tin - it stops them from sinking to the bottom!
