Cake was just about the only thing my mom didn't make from scratch. So like most people, my childhood was filled with Betty Crocker cake mixes on my birthday (but beautifully decorated with her perfect handwriting). Eventually I reached this age where I decided I didn't even like cake very much, so I started requesting more non-traditional birthday desserts. My high school self was even determined to not have cake at my wedding. Maybe cheesecake, or a layered trifle pudding, but none of those boring one-dimensional sheet cakes. My views on cake and baking remained pretty firm, until one day...
I watched the Great British Bake Off. And everything changed.
I want to just put in a plug for this show. The BBC knows how to do television. For starters, the contestants are so nice to each other and so helpful. They clearly care about winning, but their competitiveness is at the "I just want to do well" level, not the "I want to take everyone out" level. The show is actually about the baking itself, not about some drama that was cooked up for entertainment's sake. The challenges don't require big twists and gimmicks because baking is enough of a challenge in itself. And BRITISH ACCENTS. Need I say more?
As I watched the first season and learned all this fascinating history on cakes and scones and sandwiches and the like I began to appreciate how lovely they really are. Their stories are integrated with the development of society as we know it. And to think that at some point people figured out that mixing ingredients in certain ratios will give you all kinds of these fluffy, chewy, buttery, flaky, sweet things just amazes me.
So how is it that cake- this thing that the British would eat for a casual tea time- turned into this super sweet treat that we only pull out at birthdays and weddings and only make from boxes or buy from a store? Like most packaged food stories, I'm sure it dates back to the 1950's, but I think it's really unfortunate. And because I feel sorry for the state of cake in America, I decided to attempt a classic British sponge cake: the Victoria sandwich.
(oh, an aside, one of the other reasons I love the GBBO is that I get to learn British terms for baked goods, which are often quite or slightly different than our versions. And I've never heard the word "sponge" used so often as I do on this show.)
This cake was lovely. To make and to eat. It tastes like a buttery sugar cookie in cake form. Of course, true to my baking luck, it sank in the middle, which could have been due to a variety of factors. Hooray for bread knives to slice off the top and fluffy frosting that covers all ills. Here's the recipe, straight from Mary Berry. I made it using a food scale, so I'm not sure how things come out if you use weight/volume conversions. A Victoria sandwich usually is just dusted with powdered sugar, but that's no fun. So mine had a whipped filling and topping made from 1 pint of whipping cream and 1/2 cup of powdered sugar.
Aside from this cake, I've been on a bit of a baking kick that's included cornbread, biscuits, baguettes, pizza dough, and a few types of cookies. That probably doesn't sound like a big deal, but these are strides for this non-baker. Through all this, I've realized that the real harsh reason I probably don't like baking is that I don't like failure. I don't like that I can put a whole bunch of work into something and it may not turn out. As anyone who knows me pretty well teases me about- I just want things to go right the first time. Don't give me any of that learning through mistakes nonsense. I don't want to make mistakes. Well, this year has probably been one big lesson in getting over that. Not that I'm over it yet. But baking therapy sure helps.
