If I’d been organised with things, this newsletter would have landed in your inboxes on Friday - in time for you to get your bake on over this long weekend… however, I seem to have lacked that level of foresight/time/energy. These two Coronation inspired recipes (showcasing all things strawberries and cream), may therefore be a tad late to include in any potential Coronation celebrations you are part of, but hopefully you can enjoy them over the next few months as we approach the summer and peak strawberry season.
THIS WEEK
It’s been another Kitchen heavy week and I’ve bloomin LOVED it. I wish I could permanently test recipes for people and feedback my thoughts - I’ve just been in my element. I’ve learned loads, hopefully passed on a bit of info that may be useful and feel utterly inspired! Happy STEPH! whoop! My high points were nailing a genoise sponge, which I generally fail at, so I’m still here patting myself on the back, crystallising pistachios - not only do they look like little jewels, they are also highly addictive to snack on, I baked ANOTHER rendition of devils choc cake, a delightful custard tart, and have been introduced to Panela sugar which I’m now addicted to - Google it and join #teamPanela!
Despite the baking joy, I have to admit that after two weeks of pretty intense testing, I have an element of ‘sampling’ fatigue. Having DILIGENTLY tried every element of the recipes I have tested, my sweet taste buds are crying for a rest… to the extent that, on Thursday afternoon, I cut a thick slice of comté cheese, popped it on a plate, microwaved it for 10 seconds on high power, such that it fully melted, releasing all its fat into a puddle on the plate. I then spooned the melty, oily, cheesy situation directly into my mouth, licked up the remaining oil (I’m feral, I know) and was extremely happy with my spontaneous decision to do so - please try this if you haven’t, it’s wicked!
Besides the baking marathon I’ve also felt incredibly motivated and lifted by a few things I have acknowledged, read, and heard over the past week or so.
Firstly, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my morning walk with Olive. We step out of the door each morning, me in my pjs (don’t judge), and Olive wondering why she has been awakened from her slumber, to the sound of the birds, there is no traffic noise, no humans, just us and nature, the air feels fresher, everything feels calm - it’s honestly blissful.
I heard Anneka Rice recount a Maya Angelou quote on BBC breakfast earlier this week, it was:
“If you're going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can't be erased,”
I know this quote sounds profound and daunting and like it’s beyond our scope; how can little old us do big, massive things? The reality though is that everyone can leave a legacy; yes you can dream big and strive for ‘greatness’ (whatever that may be) but you can also contribute to the World much closer to home - be that a neighbour, wildlife, or science etc.
You may perceive your efforts to be insignificant but the reality is that ANY positive contribution to the World is noteworthy and will ripple further than you could ever imagine - if we do good things with boundless love, we can all be legends and you better believe it!I read a piece written by a friend who was talking about the Japanese concept called ‘Kansha’. As I understand it, Kansha, (a deeply rooted Buddhist philosophy) is an important lesson in valuing things for what they are. Its literal meaning is ‘appreciation’ or ‘gratitude’, but on a metaphorical level it stands for a beautiful practice of cultivating sincere gratitude.
In the context of food, making something from scratch - like my recipe for nut butter last week, or a loaf of bread or a Victoria sponge cake - helps you develop this appreciation. The point is, that any homemade item you create evokes memories; attached to it is the ‘labour’ it took to: conceptualise it, forage for it and make it; there is an appreciation not only for the outcome but also the process. It changes our perspective on things, you consume these things with more appreciation, joy, and fulfilment, and if shared with others, you share that joy. I LOVE this!If you see something good in someone, for goodness sake TELL them - it will NEVER be unappreciated! A kind word, message, gesture, can have an impact FAR greater than the effort it takes to make… so next time you see something good - someone looking nice or being nice or sharing good stuff, tell them that they’re good! Let’s build each other up!!
Seeing a friend holiday in Italy - she has shared her travels which I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed following, and besides the insanely drool worthy food, she has explained how uplifting and unrivalled the atmosphere is; one of pure joy, friendship, love, and kindness - someone take me to Italy?
One final thing before I kick off with the recipe chat: I’m still loving I’m a celeb, (nearly wet myself watching Joe Swash and Dean Gaffney do their first trial), just about squeezed in the Wednesday hair wash (are you tired of hearing about this yet?) and the sun has occasionally peeped out from behind the clouds which is a small win right?
Right… enough chat, let’s bake… below is my recipe for Strawberries and cream porridge and my Ultimate Vicky Sponge. Over on TCC+ we have my roasted strawberry ‘jam’ which will knock your socks off (and make your house smell MARVELLOUS!)
Strawberries & Cream Porridge
You should all be well aware by now of my porridge obsession. I can just about dabble with a morning bircher muesli and LOVE to snack on granola from time to time, but porridge is my no.1. It sets me up perfectly for the day, I find the process of eating it mindful and meditative, I savour every mouthful and, once the bowl is quite literally licked bare, (I’m not even ashamed that I do this), I often feel I could start all over again. You know what? I am really keen to refine a pancake recipe for you, that I think could be an absolute CRACKER, BUT, the porridge obsession is SO real that, I’m yet to do it because I just can’t face the thought of sacrificing my bowl of oats for a day! LOL! Pancakes for lunch may have to be a thing!
ANYWAY… as we approach the summer months, the only thing on my mind has been summer fruits and creamy things - my absolute fave combo which I’m sure I will be chatting about AT LENGTH going forward! It also seems fairly fitting to have been celebrating all things strawbs and cream in the run up to the Coronation… and the celebration starts with breakfast right?
I have shared my porridge recipe a few times before, but I’ll pop it below again, the only real difference here is a little, not too sweet strawberry compote, and a few different suggestions for toppings.
Recipe
Ingredients
Porridge
60g Jumbo Oats
300g Milk/water combo (I used a mix of semi skimmed & almond milk here)
1/2 tsp Vanilla bean paste
Pinch of Flaky sea salt
Strawberry compote
150g Strawberries I used frozen here so defrost first, but once strawberries start to flourish in a few weeks, you can use fresh
1.5 tsp Caster sugar (you can use up to 15g but I like to keep it on the less sweet side)
5ml lemon juice
To top
1 tbsp Toasted mixed seeds or nuts
50g Greek yoghurt (or creme fraiche/mascarpone for a richer flavour)
2 tsp Nut butter of your choice, you could make your own using last week’s nut butter recipe or use shop bought!
Method
For the compote, halve the strawberries, (quarter any biggies), and combine with the sugar and lemon juice in a bowl, and leave to macerate for a minimum of 20 minutes - overnight for extra flavour.
Transfer the mixture to a pan and place over a medium/low heat, cook for about 5 mins gently stirring until they become a bit syrupy and glossy, transfer back to a bowl, leave to cool then cover and transfer to the fridge allowing the flavours to infuse - again I leave them overnight for way better flavour, but it’s up to you.
For the porridge, soak your oats overnight in your choice of liquid(s). The following morning, transfer to a pan, add the vanilla, and cook over a medium heat, stirring continuously for extra creaminess, until it reaches your desired thickness, add a pinch of salt and stir through just before removing from the heat. Transfer to your serving bowl.
Top your cooked porridge with yoghurt, toasted mixed seeds or nuts, nut butter and your strawberry compote. Devour!
My *Perfect* Vicky Sponge
OK… I realise this is a bold statement to put out there, but I *think* this might be my perfect version of a Victoria sponge. When I say think, it’s because I can never be 100% sure, and, as with most things that have been done a million times before, it’s hard to improve on an already great thing. That being said, I also think that a decent sponge isn’t always guaranteed and personally, I’ve always found it a tricky thing to get right.
In fact, I generally find that recipes I perceive as ‘simple’ drive me the craziest. There’s absolutely nowhere to hide. I often have a (somewhat unrealistic) vision in my head of what I want a bake to be like, such that anything that falls short just ISN’T good enough. Needless to say, this quest for perfect has been quite a mission… as ever!
In theory, my perfect sponge is SUPER feathery, light and fluffy, has a lovely flavour, isn’t DRY and, in this instance, is subtly scented with vanilla.
SO… how did I achieve my version of perfection?
Firstly, the fat - much as I LOVE all butter sponges for flavour, I find they can often brown quite a bit yielding drier edges which, tasty as they are, are not what I want from my perfect sponge. Butter cakes also tend to stale more quickly which I dislike because I want my cake to last a bit. Thus, to retain a bit more moisture in the sponge, I opt for a proportion of olive oil alongside the butter, which I find works beautifully. I also find that the addition of oil makes it easier to incorporate my eggs, without the batter curdling - despite quite a lot of articles which suggest that it doesn’t strictly matter if you end up with a curdled batter, I don’t like what it looks like so I’m very happy to eliminate this visually unappealing situation from the process.
Next up on the priority list when making a sponge is: temperature - everything needs to be the same temperature and preferably ‘ROOM temp’ or somewhere between 18C and 22C from my experience - this is really important in order for everything to mix together nicely. I recommend your butter is nice and soft - squishy soft when you press it but not oily, temp check it if you have a thermometer and make sure it’s in that 18-22C window. When it comes to the eggs, I lightly whisk them together in a bowl and again check the temperature with my digital thermometer, if they are a bit cool (this week mine were 15C at ‘room temp’), I place the bowl of eggs into a large bowl filled with an inch of warm water and wait for temp of the eggs to come up to about 22C.
My final suggestion for a perfectly light sponge, is to use a low protein flour, between 8 and 9 g of protein per 100g (you can see this on the back of the packet). This flour is super finely milled, akin to cake flour which is often used in America, and yields light and fluffy cakes. I generally prefer using self-raising flour, although I will admit, you are open to some inconsistencies from brand to brand, and you MUST make sure the flour is within date or the raising agent incorporated in it will have died a death and you won’t get the rise you need. Here I used Doves Farm self-raising flour which I’ve found works wonderfully for light cakes - I’ve done a bit of research and can see that Sainsbury's self-raising flour has a similarly low protein content at around 9g per 100g, but I haven’t tried it.
Finally - for flavour, I add a full teaspoon of vanilla bean paste - I find the flavour of vanilla so nostalgic and comforting and I think it’s a must.
Wait… one more thing. Make sure you use DECENT cake tins - they really make the difference - PME are my favourite!
Now, I’m not shunning a standard butter rich, dense crumbed, ‘pound cake’ style sponge cake here - in fact, I have a recipe in my latest book which I still absolutely ADORE; it’s all butter, and just a subtle tweak on the OG Vicky sponge we know and love… it’s obv a goodie. However, this hits a different spot, it’s lighter than air, it literally dissolves in your mouth - you could quite easily inhale half the cake - it stays fresher for longer and possess all the comfort and nostalgia you want and need when it comes to a sponge cake. I also find the process of making this cake SO overwhelmingly calming and meditative; I was, quite literally, riding on a wave of cake euphoria when I baked this (twice) this week, so even if you don’t rate my preference for perfect cake, you will hopefully reap the same reward psychologically!
I’ve shared as many pics as I can to help guide you through the process and I do hope you love it as much as I do. Let me know if you have a go!!
RECIPE
Ingredients
85g Unsalted butter softened (squishy soft)
130g Caster sugar
40g Light olive oil
2 Large eggs (specifically 117g - weight out of shell) lightly beaten and at room temp - 22C for me
130g Self-raising flour (Ideally one with a lower protein content - 8 or 9g protein per 100g - Doves farm is great!)
35g Whole milk room temp (20C)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Pinch of sea salt
Filling
50-60g Strawberry jam Bonne Maman is my FAVE or Make my roasted strawberry jam (recipe over on TCC+)
150g Double cream
5g Icing sugar
1 tsp Whole milk
*only use 100g double cream with the same amount of icing sugar and just a tiny dash of milk to help stabilise your cream if you are just dusting your cake with caster sugar
Fresh Strawberries to decorate
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan and grease and line 2 x 6 inch cake tins with parchment.
Sift the flour into a large bowl and add a pinch of salt. Set aside. Combine the room temp milk and vanilla in a jug and again set aside.
Next, beat the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (with the beater attachment) on a medium/high speed until homogenous and slightly aerated - about 3 mins, scrape the bowl down a couple of times if necessary during this time. With the beater still running on medium, stream in the olive oil, once all of the oil has been added you will freak out and think I’m a nutter - hit looks a bit curdled and yuck, scrape the bowl around again and beat for another minute or 2 and watch it come together again before your eyes - it should resemble soft serve ice cream - YUM!
Now with the mixer running on medium (about 4 on my mixer) start adding your ROOM TEMPERATURE eggs (that is 22C and we have made sure of this by popping them in a water bath if necessary). Go slow here - I add about 25g at a time and allow each addition to fully incorporate before going in with the next. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary and be patient. In total, it takes me around 5 minutes to add all of the egg. The outcome once all of the egg has been added? A beautifully emulsified batter situation.
Now, at this point I employ a little technique I have learnt from making genoise sponges and that is to leave the mixer running on level 2 - so super slow - for about 5 mins to make sure the bubbles we have created (and thus air we have incorporated), are evenly distributed, stable and strong - I can’t promise that this is necessary and you could feasibly omit it, but I produced a more even crumb when I employed this technique so I’m prepared to think it’s a cute little technique. Once you are bored of waiting any longer. Add the flour - I go all in but you can do this in a couple of stages - and mix on the lowest setting until just combined. Finally, with the mixer still running on low, slowly stream in the milk a little at a time. Once all of it has been added, and mixed through, stop the mixer and give it a final gentle fold with a spatula.
Now transfer the super smooth batter to your cake tins - approx 260g batter per tin - and level with a palette knife. Bake in the oven for around 20-23 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool for 5 minutes in the tin - they may *slightly* flatten/shrink having removed them from the oven - and turn out onto a wire rack - they are fragile so be careful. Leave to cool completely.
Once cooled, combine the cream, icing sugar and milk in a large bowl and whip to medium peaks, at this point (see below) I finish by folding with a spatula until it’s just a bit firmer - just don’t be tempted to over whip here!
To assemble, you can trim the top off your sponge with a sharp knife if you wish but it’s not necessary, then place your first sponge on a cake board or plate. Spread around 50-60g of strawberry jam on top followed by the whipped cream (only use half here if you are adding cream on top too). Flip the top cake layer, so that the flatter bottom is now on top, and either dust with caster sugar or swirl over the remaining whipped cream and decorate with fresh sliced strawberries. Slice and serve BABY!
For the first time this year - I’m being told off by Substack for ‘nearing my email length limit’… BOOO!!! I’ll have to keep this sign off short and sweet. As ever, I’m sending love and big, massive squishy hugs to you all!
Hope you are all having a thoroughly fabulous weekend,
Steph X X X
I made the Vicky Sponge for my mother for Mother's Day, what a hit! In typical "my mother" fashion, her one bit of critical feedback was "that would probably be better with raspberry." The most challenging parts of the recipe were finding vanilla bean paste (did not carry at my local grocery, so I substituted), and creating the cream. That was a delicious recipe though, well done and thank you :)
You have a real talent Steph - not only for baking, but for expressing yourself so well. Your posts never fail to bring a smile to my face and to make me feel empathy, and empathized. It's a gift you have.