from Tracey G

For this week’s “Cake” category offering, I wanted something simple – but not too simple. I wanted a few pieces to put together, but not an elaborate fancy-shmancy confection of towering proportions or frilly decor, something in between. After searching and searching, I landed upon this recipe for Victoria Sandwich Cake. It really caught my attention – firstly, it had the look I was after – pretty, but not too perfect, it would have the “homey” look and feel. Then I noticed it used self-rising flour! Yes! One more way to use my self-rising flour that I ordered from King Arthur Flour because I wanted their brand and couldn’t find it here (and it was very much competitively priced on their website!). And lastly, I noted that I had ALL the ingredients on hand. I was so happy! LOL! It was a trifecta of perfectness for me! It was rather handy as well with those ingredients – 2 of them that I had on hand, the apricot jam and the heavy whipping cream, I had bought for other recipes. I was able to use up the heavy cream before it went bad, and the apricot jam, well, I couldn’t remember what recipe I’d bought it for (that’ll teach me to not write things down!)!

It also has a fun bit of history, as it was named after Queen Victoria, and it’s first incarnations were as a loaf and then sliced, but it’s long since morphed into the round layer cake it is today, and, it’s a staple in the English baker’s recipe collection. From what I understand there’s also quite a few variants out there with this recipe as well – as far as the fillings go, the jam and the whipped cream. A buttercream instead of a whipped cream and your favorite jam flavor.

On to making the cake. It was almost too easy. Seriously. Since the cake batter uses self-rising flour, there’s very few ingredients: self-rising flour, eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract. Although, those two extracts are optional, as they are an addition to this recipe that isn’t in the classic version. You start by creaming the butter and sugar, then add in the eggs one at a time. After the eggs are completely incorporated, you add the extracts then finally the flour. Divide the batter between two 8-inch round cake pans that have been lightly greased (I greased and used a parchment round in the bottom for extra insurance).

One of the final steps, if you desire, is to brush the top of the cake with simple syrup (or a syrup flavor of your choice) and then add a sprinkle of coarse sugar for some crunch and sparkle, I used the King Arthur Flour Sparkling Sugar. While the cake was baking, I made up my own simple syrup. I used the King Arthur Flour Simple Syrup recipe, but it’s a basic recipe no matter what  – just sugar and water in a one to one ratio. You combine, cook & stir until sugar is dissolved, then let boil for 3 minutes with no stirring. After it’s finished, you let cool to room temperature. This worked out perfect, because by the time I got to the point in the recipe where you brush the cake, my syrup was perfectly cooled and ready to go. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

After you get your cakes out of the oven, you cool in pan for a few minutes then turn them out onto a rack to cool completely. I waited until they were completely cool before I made my whipped cream mixture, so it would be fresh when needed. That’s also a very simple procedure, whip the cream, while whipping sprinkle in the sugar. When it’s rather stiff and well blended, you stir in your vanilla. That’s it!

Now is the time for assembly. One layer of the cake goes on the plate, spread with your jam. The jam is then covered by the whipped cream as another layer. Top with the other cake layer. Once it’s built, brush the top of the top layer with the syrup and sprinkle on the coarse sugar if desired! That’s all there is to it.

On to serving… I refrigerated it for a little bit before I cut it, just to make it easier on myself for cutting, but I honestly couldn’t say if it made a difference or not, as it was pretty easy to portion and slice. Was it due to the refrigeration? I’m not entirely sure! They recommend that it’s best the first 12 hours, and state that it’s still good though through 2 or 3 days, and I believe that! I had it yesterday on the day it was made, and I had a serving today, and it was still just as yummy. As there’s still half a cake left, I’ll get to sample it again tomorrow and see how it’s holding up! I’m sure it will be just fine…. 😉

from Kris B

I have to say right up front that I am not one who has jumped onto the gluten-free eating bandwagon as a way of life[ so, I have done zero intentional gluten-free baking.  However, in an effort to broaden my thinking and my palette, I decided to try a gluten-free cake this week.  I wanted a recipe that was simple, but sounded good.  One that didn’t have a lot of sweet, but had some.  Too much sweet is definitely something that I need to eliminate from my everyday eating.  As I perused recipes on the King Arthur Flour website, This Strawberry Almond Flour Cake seemed to fit the bill.  It uses almond flour, eggs, sugar (only a 1/2 cup), salt, baking powder, vanilla, optional coconut flour, and strawberries (or fruit of your choice) as a topping.  Armed with this recipe, I was ready to bake my first gluten-free cake.  I would be lying if I told you that I was not a little bit skeptical about the outcome of this particular baking adventure.

The recipe begins by having you separate four eggs.  The yolks are beat with sugar and vanilla and set aside while, in a separate bowl, you then beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.  In a third bowl, the dry ingredients are whisked together.  The egg yolk mixture is then mixed into  to the dry ingredients.  Once fully incorporated, the egg whites are added to this mixture 1/2 a cup at a time.  Once all of the ingredients are fully mixed, you have a light and fluffy batter that is ready to be poured into an 8 inch cake pan and baked for 30-35 minutes.  This last step is the only place where I encountered any difficulties with this recipe.

I don’t have an 8 inch cake pan.  Who knew?  I have 6, 9, and 10 inch pans, but no 8 inch pan.

I debated with myself about whether or not to use the 6′ pan because, although all of the reviews of this recipe on the King Arthur website praised the taste of this cake, several of them said that they felt that the cake was too thin.  Having read that, I figured that if I was going to use the 10″ pan, I would have to increase the batter by maybe half???  Since I had no experience with gluten-free baking and how the batter would behave, I did not feel comfortable making these kinds of adjustments first crack out of the barrel.  I them remembered that I have an 8″ cast iron skillet.  That should work. Right?  I adjusted the my baking temperature down from 350 to 325 degrees since cast iron hold more heat than aluminum cake pans.  I poured my batter into the prepared skillet and hoped for the best.

Thirty-five minutes later, well actually 40 minutes because the cake cooled in the pan for five minutes, the cake released from the skillet beautifully and turned out onto a plate with no casualties.  It was a nice golden color with just a tiny bit of crispness on its edges.  Since this cake does not get iced, that crispness gave it a little “shape.”

Once cooled, the Strawberry Almond Flour Cake is topped with strawberries and/or the fruit of your choice.  I did top mine with a light dusting of confectioner’s sugar.  I actually did this more for the photo than for the eating of the cake.  This added sugar is certainly not necessary.

I photographed the cake.  And then it was time to eat it.

I WAS PLEASANTLY SURPRISED!!!

This cake is absolutely scrumptious!  It is a bit more dense than a regular yellow cake, which is fine with me, but ts texture is not quite like that of a pound cake either.  This may be the best “yellow” cake that I have ever tasted.  That is saying a lot because my favorite kind of cake is yellow cake with chocolate frosting; I have sampled lots of different yellow cake recipes in my fifty-five years!  To say that this may be the best is saying a lot for this recipe.  I found the thickness of this cake just fine, not to thin as was mentioned in the reviews.

I did eat the cake with the suggested berry topping.  The fruit combined with the light sweetness of the cake itself was just the right amount to give me the feeling of having had a nice treat, but not the guilt from indulging in a super rich dessert.  But…I am not above trying it with chocolate frosting next time.  I’ll happily garnish it with strawberries so that the cake doesn’t suffer an identity crisis. 🙂

Seriously…even if you are not a gluten-free eater, you have got to give the Strawberry Almond Flour Cake a try!

8 inch cake pan from King Arthur Flour…just in case you don’t have one either.

Happy baking!