VICTORIA SPONGE CAKE WITH WHIPPED CREAM AND STRAWBERRY COMPOTE

Papa’s birthday was in February and I had to go through the photo gallery to see which cake I had baked! I had a completely different recipe in mind but ended up baking the Victorian Sponge as I didn’t get the ingredients I wanted for the white chocolate cake.

I stayed up till 12 ‘googling’ ideas to decorate the cake and finally came up with whipped cream and strawberry compote topping.  In our Mango ice cream recipe, I have explained how to make whipped cream from regular fresh cream. I’ve used Amul Fresh cream for this recipe too.

You may also check our post on Victoria Sponge Cake with cream cheese icing. 

There were contradictory views on the way the cake looked. While everyone agreed that the cake tasted heavenly, some didn’t think it looked very pretty. Ahem! I thought it looked very nice. What do you think?  

Strawberry compote makes for a great topping for cakes! The sweetness of the cake went well with the tangy strawberry compote offset by the mildly sweetened cream. I winged the compote recipe. Add the lime juice and sugar as per your taste.

I had some leftover cream and compote which I used to make ‘Trifle in a Jar’. I wish I had clicked some better pictures of those. I brought the mason jars out after a heavy meal. Sky said he was too full to eat the whole thing and Skip in his typical fashion when presented with ‘new food’ suspiciously eyed the jar and said he’ll just have one spoon of it. After 10 minutes, I see that Sky and Skip had polished off the entire jar. Skip was busy licking the spoon and Sky was rummaging through the fridge to see if there’s more. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram and you’ll know when we put up the recipe for this trifle.  

VICTORIA SPONGE CAKE WITH WHIPPED CREAM AND STRAWBERRY COMPOTE

Ingredients: 

                                                                                    

For the cake

Flour- 175 gms

Butter- 175 gms

Castor Sugar- 150 gms

Eggs – 3

Baking Powder – 1tsp

Baking Soda – 1tsp

Vanilla Essence– 2 tsp

For the Strawberry Compote:

Handful of fresh strawberries

Lime juice – 1 ½ tbsp

Sugar – 1 ½ tbsp (as per taste)

Method:

1.      Preheat oven to 180 C and line your baking dish (8 inch pan).

2.      Cream butter and sugar until soft and fluffy.

3.      Add eggs one at a time beating well with each addition.

4.      Sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda and add to the above mixture. Mix well.

5.      Add vanilla essence.

6.      Bake for 20-25 minutes or till done. Set aside and let it cool.

7.      Whip the cream and set aside.

8.     For the strawberry compote: Cook strawberries over medium heat. Add the lime juice and sugar and cook for about 10 to 12 minutes stirring it at frequent intervals.  As it cooks and begins to soften, use the back of the ladle to mash the fruit. Cook until it starts to thicken slightly and the fruit is soft but still in pieces. Let it cool.

9.      Assemble the cake by topping it with cream and the compote.

10. Done.

BIRTHDAY PARTY IDEAS

Skip turned 6. This year too we had his birthday party at home. I see a lot of parents having themed birthday parties but that just involves too much preparation and that means more stress. Getting decorations, snacks, party favours, cake et all following the same theme isn’t my cup of tea!

Last year I conducted two games and spent quite some time surfing the net looking for unusual, yet simple, games for kids between the ages of 3 to 10. This year I had something different planned and thought it apt that I share these birthday ideas with our readers.

I got the idea when I was thinking about the return gifts. You would all agree that choosing and buying the return gifts is the most taxing part of the preparations.

My style of birthday preparation is very military. I take down notes, create timelines, make lists and carry these ‘to-do’ lists around with me at all times. I had decided on calling few kids this time as I wanted to have children around the same age group for the activities that I had in mind.

Number of children invited – 10

Total number of mouths to feed (inclusive of birthday boy, accompanying adults, family and help) – 40

Birthday cake – Paw Patrol theme

Snacks – Mini pizzas, Samosas, mini submarines (sandwiches) veg and non veg, potato chips, mango juice

Activities - decorating pots and baking mug cakes

Return gifts – potted plants and microwavable mugs

Decorations – balloons, tent and inflatable bounce back toy

Time – 4.30 p.m

Venue – Home

I booked the cake from Desserted. It is a lovely cafe plus bakery located at Vasanthnagar that has some amazing bakes. Last year too I had ordered Skip’s birthday cake from there. They bake the cake exactly as per your requirement. The cakes look pretty and more importantly, taste splendid. I got a cake featuring the characters from Paw Patrol and threw in one of Skip’s favourite lines from the series which I thought was fitting for the cake.

For the decorations, I skipped the buntings and wall hangings and kept it simple. I scattered balloons on the floor and the younger lot had fun chasing these balloons. I also placed Skip’s tent in the balcony along with the bounce-back toy and this had the older lot occupied while we took turns baking the cake.

The snacks were ordered from Amma’s Pastries. The snacks were fresh and the sandwiches that were loaded with mayonnaise deserve a special mention.

ACTIVITY 1(POT DECORATING): I covered our table in the balcony with newspapers. I bought 11 potted plants. These plants came in plastic pots. As the pots were plastic, painting on them was out of question. Also, painting would have proved to be a messy affair. For decorating the pots, I bought ribbons, silver craft paper, rhinestone stickers and tubes of Fevicol. Each child was asked to pick a ribbon and stick it at the bottom of the pot. I cut out a sun, moon and star from the silver paper and also the first alphabet of each child’s name and asked the children to stick it on their respective pots. I then gave 5 strips each of the crystal stickers and asked them to let their imagination go wild.

ACTIVITY 2 (BAKING A MUG CAKE) – I bought 11 microwavable mugs. I had kept the ingredients ready before hand.  In batches of three, I made the children measure their own set of ingredients and mix the cake batter. The children enjoyed baking their own cake and licking off the batter from their mixing spoons! You can get the recipe for the mug cake here.

By the time, we were done with decorating and baking, it was time to cut the cake and then have our snacks.

Handling kids in this age group can be quite a handful but I had help from their mommies and my mommy.

The kids went back home happily holding onto their potted plant and their mug cake.

My next post in this category shall be on birthday gift ideas.