A final birthday to end the week
It’s Queen Victoria’s 200th. Happy b’day, Vicky!
That there is not a commemorative statue. It’s a life-sized cake. I mean, she wasn’t very tall, but still:
The cake in her likeness stands at real-size 4ft 11” tall and required 298 eggs, 26kg of butter and 20kg of fondant.
By now, it’s been cut into 600 slices. And yes, it’s a Victoria sponge.
The Victoria sponge, also known as the Victoria sandwich or Victorian cake, was named after Queen Victoria, who was known to enjoy a slice of the sponge cake with her afternoon tea. The sponge part evolved from the classic pound cake – equal quantities of butter, sugar, eggs and flour. The difference was the Victorian creation of baking powder, which was discovered by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843, which enabled the sponge to rise higher. This invention, writes cookery author Felicity Cloake, “was celebrated with a patriotic cake”, Victoria sponge.
You know those horrible sweet little mass-produced cakes that look like a red blood cell that you make strawberry shortcake out of? I love those things. I can’t get them here. Cheap supermarket Victoria sponge has saved my strawberry shortcake. Hurrah!
Hoist a gin to Her Maj and have a great weekend!
May 24, 2019 — 8:54 pm
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