Secret Sauce 16 - Eve Defy

This mix is a hodgepodge of things I liked from this year and a few tracks that I have been obsessed with for some time now. Mostly it came out of an attempt not to overthink it, which is a bad habit of mine I'm trying to confront in various aspects of life. It is also I suppose an ode to an erstwhile friend who had a big impact on me, after all everything we do with art is intrinsically devotional. That said, the ideal with this mix was to be straightforward and above all lighthearted, since goddess knows I could be better at focusing on the things that balance out my own cast iron one. It is of course still indulgent as ever :) thanks for listening, stay warm, and don't forget to dance.

The recipe comes courtesy of my beloved mother, since the only kind of baking I really do involves weed.

Victoria Sponge Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup plus 2 Tbs sugar
• 1⁄2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1 Tbs milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy
3. Add the eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly
4. Sift the flour into the bowl and GENTLY fold in the flour and milk
5. Line 2 8” round cake pans with parchment paper and spray with non stick spray
6. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans smoothing out the top
7. Bake the cakes for 20-25 minutes yntil the cake is golden and is just beginning to shrink from the side of the pan
8. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before unmolding them and putting them onto a cooling rack

This is an American translation (takes into account the size of eggs and the type of flour available here) of an English recipe that Alfred Bird came up with after he invented baking powder. Up until this time the only way to make baked goods rise was to use yeast, but his wife was allergic to yeast.

Queen Victoria loved this cake for afternoon tea, and it was then named after her.

There are several options for filling the cake:

• Jam in the middle and a dusting of regular sugar on top, this is the WI (Women’s Institute)
  standard and must be presented this way in Victoria Sponge cooking competitions.
• Jam/Fresh raspberries and whipped cream, Queen Victoria’s favorite and the way it was made in my family – the problem is that it then needs to be refrigerated and I feel that spoils the texture of the sponge.
• Jam and buttercream/frosting. The American way maybe.

– Hilary Croft