The World of Cakes
Welcome to the world of cakes! Just about as easy as shortbread - just takes a little more elbow grease!
Basic Recipe and Notes
So the basic recipe, which you will recognise, is an egg and its weight in flour, butter and sugar. Or in other words for a nice fluffy Victoria sponge (7" sandwich tin or 2lb loaf tin)
| 4oz | Butter or margarine | 120g |
|---|---|---|
| 4oz | Sugar (granulated is fine) | 120g |
| 2 | Eggs - medium or large | 2 |
| 4oz | Self raising flour - sieved | 120g |
Make them by hand, in a processor or a mixer, it doesn't really matter. I'm an old fashioned cake maker and don't believe in the 'all in one' method but there is nothing wrong with it, you just need to add extra baking powder to make sure the mixture will rise.
It is a good idea to have the marg or butter and eggs at room temperature but you can easily cheat with the microwave or by putting your eggs into warm water for five minutes (I do that all the time!).
Light soft brown sugar can be used in part or whole. Dark or Muscovado you would keep for Christmas cake and the like. Honey can be substituted for half the amount of sugar.
Allinsons do a very nice wholemeal self raising flour which you can use in part or whole and this makes a great cake with a little more texture.
The Science:
OK, here is the science lesson - skip by all means!
A word on egg size - medium is fine for the avoirdupois recipe, but I might use large for metric quantities. If you were making a fruit cake with more flour in proportion to fat and sugar, then large eggs will give you a lighter result.
By increasing the amount of flour you move from the fragile and delectable sponge cake to puddings and 'lunchbox' cakes which are more substantial with fruit and other additions. Depending on how much fruit you want your sponge to hold you would also use a mixture of self raising and plain flour. You don't want too many air bubbles in a fruit cake or the fruit would sink. It all comes down to science!
The table below is a recipe as such but it gives you an idea of how you can alter the proportions of the basic ingredients to suit your end product.
| Victoria Sponge | Sponge Pudding | Medium Fruit Cake | Heavy Fruit Cake | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Butter or Margarine | 4oz | 4oz | 4oz | 4oz |
| Sugar | 4oz | 4oz | 4oz | 4oz |
| Eggs | 2 medium | 2 medium | 2 med/large | 2 large |
| Self Raising Flour | 4 oz | 6-8oz | 4-6oz | |
| Plain Flour | 4oz | 4oz | ||
| Other Ingredients | Milk to mix, fruit etc | Fruit etc | Fruit etc |
Beat the fat and sugar together till light and creamy with lots of air trapped in the mixture. The sugar gives the cake its tender qualities. Then beat in the eggs one by one. The mixture will become more solid as the eggs form an emulsion with the fat. Then it may start to look curdled but honestly this doesn't matter in the slightest. It just means that the emulsion can't hold any more egg. What is important is to mix in the flour just as gently as you can because one, you don't want to lose all that precious air you have worked into the mix, and two you don't want to strengthen the gluten (wheat protein) in the flour because this would make a much tougher cake. Once it is mixed get it into your greased and lined tin(s) at once and bake at a warmer temperature for sandwich type cakes (180°C / gas mark 4), hotter still for buns(200°C / gas mark 6) and much lower (150°C / gas mark 2-3) for a fruit cake. You will know it is ready when it is well risen, golden brown, shrinking away from the tin at the sides and when you press it gently it will rise back up.
This quantity will make 16 fairy cakes or 8 Nigella style cup cakes made in muffin tins to be iced as you fancy.
The mixture I use most is the medium fruit cake one, adding whatever takes my fancy or is to hand. Loaf tins are most convenient for bulk baking but a roasting tin would do very well too, it would just take a little longer to cook in the centre.
Dried fruit - mixed or separate - much nicer if you soak it overnight in squeezed lemon or orange juice or even alcohol! Ready to use apricots, prunes and figs are good but to avoid an excess of chemicals soak your own.
Glacé cherries must be washed in warm water (and preferably chopped) to remove all traces of the syrup, then dried to prevent them sinking too badly. They will a bit anyway but it could be worse, believe me. That is why I make the happy cherry cake - with a layer of marzipan in the middle those sneaky little cherries just don't have a chance to sink!
Fresh fruit: Grated or small chunks of apple are wonderful in a cake, likewise mashed banana. Or sliced pineapple for an up-side-down cake.