VEGAN Victoria Sponge

 So, I made a Victoria Sponge. An Egg-free, dairy free Victoria sponge. AND IT WAS AMAZING. I got the recipe from this wonderful blog which I am totally in love with, especially the cookies, which I will likely do a post on at a later date.

But, for now, I shall discuss the cake! Now, I changed the recipe a bit, obviously I used dairy-free spread in place of butter, and soya milk in place of actual milk. I also replaced half of the milk with sparkling water, as I saw it suggested on one of the comments, and I’ve seen elsewhere that carbonated drinks are good at aerating cakes.

So, I gave it a go. Cakes aren’t really what I’m good at. I can do cookies quite well, the cakes, less so. But oh my GOODNESS this was AMAZING. Mr P was very pleasantly surprised. Very much so.

Please excuse my slightly grubby ironing board

I have but one criticism, which is more a criticism of me, than of the recipe – I didn’t take into account that dairy-free spread is so much softer than butter, and so the buttercream didn’t really work. Well, it tasted good, but when we cut into it the butter cream (mixed with the jam) leaked out of the sides and looked a LITTLE BIT LIKE BRAINS. (Please note, this was Mr P’s observation, not mine). But, it tasted SOOO GOOD. And actually, after a couple of days in the fridge the buttercream hardened quite a bit, and it worked as a functional cake.

Omnom braaaains

It lasted for 5ish days, and not because it went off, but because we ATE IT ALL. Nommy. Also I put a heart on the top, because I am a romantic, and it seemed like a fun thing to do. I have no idea what the “proper” way to do this is, but I figured I’d cut a stencil from grease-proof paper (freezer paper if you are over the pond!) and just place it on top of the cake. It worked pretty well, as you can see from my WORK OF ART.

Definitely going to make more of these. And I’m going to try out a chocolate version with some chocolate fudge icing too – I’ll let you know how that goes!

Katy x