Using Victoria Sponge For A Shaped Cake

Asked by Snoozosaurus. Answered on 17th July 2016

Full question

My favourite cake recipe is the Victoria Sponge from Domestic Goddess, I want to use this for my husband's 50th birthday cake which I am making in the shape of a number 50. The volume on the tin is 2.2L. How can I work out the volume of the tins intended for the original recipe so that I can multiply it up?

Our answer

Nigella's Victoria Sponge recipe (from HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS is a 4-egg quantity of sponge cake. It is baked in two sandwich tins or cake pans which have a diameter of 21cm. Most of these tins have a depth of 4-5cm.

So the volume of the two tins added together will be approximately 3.1 litres. This would suggest that you would need approximately 3/4 of the cake batter for the tin, or a 3-egg quantity of the recipe. However scaling cakes is always a little tricky and we would suggest making the full amount of cake batter. Fill the shaped cake pan between half and two-thirds full of batter and then use the leftover batter to make a few cupcakes. The cupcakes can be frozen for a later date or served alongside the cake itself. Cupcakes will take 15-20 minutes to bake in a 180c/350F oven.