The Duchess of Cornwall Shares Her Personal Recipe For Victoria Sponge Cake
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Throughout the past year, the Duchess of Cornwall has revealed the books on her personal reading list as she shares her love of literature. And now Camilla has given another glimpse into her life behind closed doors by passing on her very own recipe for the Victoria Sponge cake she bakes herself.
The Duchess, 74, posed with her Victoria Sponge as she prepares to mark initiative Poetry Together. The annual event brings together elderly people in care homes with school children to learn and recite a poem before having tea and cake. It was launched by writer and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, who has written notable royal biographies and was a friend of Prince Philip’s. Camilla supported Brandreth when he started Poetry Together in 2019, and is hoping to join children and care home residents as they mark this year’s event after 2020 was forced online due to the pandemic.
“This is amazing, we now have the freedom for old people and young people to meet up at school or in care homes, perform poetry together that they have all learnt by heart, and enjoy tea and cake,” Gyles Brandreth said in a statement provided by Dukes Education, an organization which supports the initiative. “And not just any cake, a Royal cake! What more could you want?”
Prince Charles and Camilla are currently in Scotland where they appeared publicly this week in Ballater, Aberdeenshire on a visit to a community hub dressed in kilts. They usually stay at Birkhall, their residence on the Balmoral Estate, at this time of year while the Queen is in residence in the castle.
The Duchess of Cornwall’s Recipe for Victoria Sponge
Ingredients
4 oz self-raising flour (110g), sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 oz soft margarine or butter (110g), at room temperature
4 oz caster sugar (110g)
2 large eggs
2-3 drops of pure vanilla essence
To finish
Lemon curd or jam (with fresh cream, optional) or Nutella or your filling of choice, and sifted icing sugar
Method
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3, 325° F, 170° C
Two 7-inch (18 cm) sponge tins, no less than 1 inch (2.5cm) deep, lightly greased and lined with greaseproof paper (also greased) or silicone paper
Take a large roomy mixing bowl, and sift flour and baking powder into it, holding the sieve high to give the flour a good airing. Then simply add all the other ingredients to the bowl and whisk them—preferably with an electric hand whisk— till thoroughly combined. If the mixture doesn’t drop off a wooden spoon easily when tapped on the side of the bowl, then add 1 or 2 teaspoons of tap-warm water, and whisk again.
Now divide the mixture between the two prepared tins, level off and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes. When cooked leave them in the tins for only about 30 seconds, then loosen the edges by sliding a palette knife all round and turn them onto a wire cooling rack. Peel off the base papers carefully and, when cool, sandwich the cakes together with lemon curd or jam (or jam and fresh cream) or Nutella or your filling of choice, and dust with icing sugar.
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