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CreativityTranscript
00:00 There's nothing more quintessentially British than tea and cake in the afternoon.
00:05 But the cake for me has to be a Victoria sandwich.
00:09 To make a Victoria sandwich actually is very, very simple, but it can go wrong.
00:13 Hi Paul, my sponge has gone wrong, what can I do?
00:18 There's a couple of things that's gone wrong.
00:20 You can see the dip in the middle.
00:23 The temperature of your oven, if it was too high, it bakes on the outside but remains
00:27 soft on the inside, so when you bring it out of the oven it just collapses after it comes
00:32 out of the oven.
00:33 The other problem is when it dips when it's in the oven.
00:35 This is normally caused by too much baking powder or too much rising agent.
00:40 What happens is the baking powder grows in the oven, reaches its capacity but it's still
00:45 not baked and then collapses.
00:47 Be careful A, when weighing up your ingredients.
00:50 B, check your oven temperature is correct.
00:53 So you can buy a probe, pop it in the oven and just check what the thermometer is saying
00:58 to what your oven is set at.
01:00 If your oven is not clean, then this will create fluctuation in the thermostat between
01:06 the probe and your oven.
01:08 So balance your oven out, that's critical.
01:10 Now I'm making a Victoria sandwich using the all-in-one method.
01:13 In here I have my flour, plain flour.
01:16 Then I'm going to add my butter, caster sugar, my baking powder, because I'm using plain
01:22 flour this is going to be my rising agent.
01:25 Just take your mixer and on slow speed to start with, just break the mix up a little
01:31 bit.
01:32 You're almost taking it to a crumb texture.
01:34 You can see how yellow it goes with the butter's gone in there.
01:37 Now I'm going to add four eggs straight in.
01:40 Bang, in.
01:41 It takes years of practice that.
01:45 Or if you're going to do traditionally, like my nan used to do, just break the egg and
01:50 drop it in.
01:51 Again, tap the side of the bowl and drop the egg straight in.
01:56 Get your mixer again, slow speed, and incorporate all the ingredients into the sponge mixture.
02:04 I'm happy with that.
02:05 So you end up with a beautiful mixture like that.
02:10 Lovely and soft.
02:12 Just take your spatula right down the bottom to make sure you've incorporated all the ingredients
02:16 inside.
02:17 Over here I have my two tins.
02:20 Now I've buttered the side of these and underneath.
02:23 The only reason I buttered underneath is so the paper, the baking parchment, will stick.
02:28 Now you split your mixture between the two, the same quantity in both.
02:33 If you're entering a really serious baking competition, then I'd advise you weigh these
02:39 up.
02:40 Just spread your mixture out a little bit to the edge of the tin.
02:43 Just run your spatula around a little bit.
02:45 Preheat your oven to 180, which is the temperature these things will bake at.
02:49 As soon as this mixture hits the oven, it will equalize and then it will dome.
02:54 Do exactly the same thing with the other one.
02:56 And what I like to do as well is just run my spatula around the outside of the mixture,
03:02 just so I've got a little bit more in the middle.
03:04 Just encourages it to dome slightly.
03:07 I'm happy with that.
03:09 And then you pop them in at 180 and bake them off.
03:13 Now what will happen is the edges will pull away slightly from the tin.
03:17 It's an indication that the cake is ready.
03:19 Now that is baked all the way around.
03:22 It pulled away from the tin beautifully and it's domed slightly in the middle.
03:28 And it's a gorgeous golden color all the way around.
03:32 Now to prepare your Victoria sandwich is very simple.
03:37 There's one on a beautiful stand.
03:40 Get your cream.
03:42 Get your mixer.
03:43 Whisk the cream.
03:44 Perfect.
03:51 So now you've got the cream, raspberry jam dolloped onto the top and just taken down
03:56 towards the edge of the sponge.
03:59 Then I'm going to add some cream onto the top of that.
04:03 Just take it roughly towards the outside.
04:06 Take your paper off.
04:07 Drop your sponge onto the top.
04:10 Bit of pressure.
04:11 I want to see a bit of oozing.
04:14 And on top of that there's something missing.
04:15 So a little bit of icing sugar in a sieve and just tap around the outside.
04:21 Oh yes.
04:23 Come to daddy.
04:25 What's better on an afternoon than a proper Victoria sandwich.
04:32 Beautiful even texture throughout the whole sponge.
04:35 That's due to the mixing properly.
04:37 The right amount of ingredients, the baking powder, the flour.
04:41 Good baking temperature, good consistency in the oven.
04:45 I'll take this hit.
04:50 Just need a cup of tea now.
04:53 For advice, hints, tips and recipes on baking, visit fabflour.co.uk.
04:59 Thank you.