The history of the Victoria sponge cake
The sponge cake can be traced back to the 15th century. It was one of the first types of cake to be made without yeast and the term ‘sponge cake’ comes from the sponge-like openness of the crumb.
It became the pinnacle of British food culture thanks to Anne Russell, the Seventh Duchess of Bedford and, of course, Queen Victoria herself.
Back in the 19th century, high tea (the evening meal) was taken at around 8pm – 9pm and Anne often complained of being hungry around mid-afternoon, as it was such as long wait between lunch and high tea. Because of this, she requested that some tea and light food was brought to her drawing room to satisfy her hunger.
She began inviting her friends to this mid-afternoon tea, one of them being Queen Victoria. The Queen approved of the new practice of a mid-afternoon treat, and it became the trend among the upper classes.
Queen Victoria quickly became a big fan of the afternoon tea, and it was said she would often enjoy chocolate sponges, plain sponges, biscuits, petit fours, almond sweets and many other sweet treats. But it was the plain sponge cake, known as the sandwich cake with a jam and buttercream filling, dusted with sugar, that reigned supreme and was therefore named in her honour.
If this blog post has made you hanker after a slice of Victoria sponge, then why not pre-order one from us for your Jubilee celebrations?
We’ll have 8-inch Victoria sponge cakes filled with homemade seedless raspberry jam and buttercream for £24. Pre-orders should be made before May 27. Cakes must be collected from us on June 4 before 2pm.
If you’d like to make your own Victoria sandwich, then the Royal household has released the official recipe here.