Tuesday 5 June 2012

Jubilee Vanilla Sponge Cake


My final Jubilee Bake which was supposed to be one thing but turned out to be another. Never waste good cake is all I can say :) I planned to make a Jubilee checkerboard cake with red, white and blue. I bought the checkerboard pan from America and it feels like I'm destined not to make one as the first time I used it I failed and this is an epic fail too ....hmmm... maybe third time lucky? 

If you want to make a proper checkerboard cake without fancy equipment, check out this awesome cake by Dom from Belleau Kitchen. Pure genius! That was what I imagined in my head but let's just pretend I set out to make exactly this cake in the first place :) 

I used a basic vanilla sponge and divided the cake batter evenly into 3 - I left one plain, coloured one red and the other blue. So far so good.


Got my nifty checkerboard cake pan out and starting filling the batter. When I got to the second pan, I only managed to fill half the tin so clearly this was not going to work (you need to fill 3 tins). I scooped out the batter from the second tin and made 6 large cupcakes which I filled with strawberry jam and added to the street party cupcakes. 


I did however bake the first cake and ended up with this....


I debated what to do with the cake and in the end decided on this simple yet effective decoration. I've seen them everywhere and had wanted to make a traybake but ran out of time. Do you believe that things happen for a reason? 

Cover with vanilla buttercream... 


 Decorate with strawberries and blueberries in the Jubilee spirit :)


I was really impressed with the cake slice! Special thanks to J who bought me this cool cake board - thanks :)

Jubilee Vanilla Sponge cake - enjoy!


As this is a vanilla cake with vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract and a vanilla buttercream, I am entering it to this month's Alphabakes hosted by myself. I'm sure you can guess that the letter is "V" 
If you want to join in, make sure you email your entries by the 25th June.




As Karen has pointed out, these would also be perfect for this month's Tea Time Treats table as they are covered in berries. The theme is 'summer fruits'.  Tea Time Treats is a monthly blogging challenge hosted this month by Kate from What Kate Baked and on alternate months by Karen from Lavender and Lovage.



For the vanilla sponge
(makes 1 large 23cm cake and 6 large cupcakes)

500g butter
500g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
500g caster sugar
6 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Food colouring - I used paste colouring - red and blue

For the vanilla buttercream


250g butter
500g icing sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To decorate


Fresh strawberries (or raspberries)
Fresh blueberries


  • Preheat the oven to 180C.
  • Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
  • Add the eggs, one at time.
  • Stir in the vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract.
  • Add the flour and baking powder.
  • Divide the cake batter evenly into 3 (I weighed them out on a scale).
  • Colour 1 red, 1 blue and leave the third portion plain.
  • Bake using a checkerboard pan as shown.
  • Bake for approximately 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. 
  • Allow to cool completely before decorating. 
  • To make the buttercream, mix all the ingredients in a mixer until smooth.
  • Spread the buttercream on top of the cooled cake and decorate with fresh fruits as shown. 

24 comments:

  1. Dear! maybe you don't believe tha: I post today mini sponge cakes:) Youra look awesome ! I was thinking in make something like yours but finally I made the littles!

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    1. I love your mini sponges - they were really cute!

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  2. The red, white and blue sponge looks great - it's a pity you didn't have enough to do the three layers, but this looks fab as it is. Especially with the berries on the top! Bet it tasted great, too! :)

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    1. I know! Clearly I can't do math - i doubled the sponge recipe but should have tripled or quadrupled it as the cake tin is quite large. At least it tasted good :)

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  3. oh I love it... and I love the berries on top!... It seems so much more complicated than my hand-made one but looks so good none the less and a great entry for alphabakes too!... thanks for the link xx

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    1. Thanks Dom - I really loved your cake and really, really wanted to make a checkerboard but it just wasn't meant to be this time.

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  4. OOH I love the vertical stripes in the cake. With the berries the cake looks so inviting and yummy.

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    1. Thanks! I was quite pleased with the final result :)

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  5. that's one good looking cake. Yum

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  6. What a shame it didn't turn out as you'd hoped, I hate it when I have a picture in my head of how it's going to go and then it doesn't meet that expectation so I feel your pain! but I think the striped effect is still cool and very 'Jubilee', your blog has probably been the most Jubilant of all with all those dedicated bakes! Your frosting and all that juicy fruit looks so delish!

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    1. Thanks I have gone a little Jubilee baking mad! The cake was really light and moist and the fruits made it even better! I hate it too when things don't turn out as expected but silver lining and all that :)

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  7. This is FABULOUS! And, you should enter this into the Tea Time Treats event for June too Ros, as it is COVERED with LUSH berries! JUST fabulous....never mind the layers, it's still VERY patriotic and such a pretty cake!

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    1. Thanks Karen - I've just sent it to Tea Time Treats. Luckily the cake tasted good and everyone was suitably impressed :)

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  8. Love this cake with lovely colors! It looks great to me & honestly it made it look special! And the berries topping are FAB! Great job, Ros! Have a lovely day! :)

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    1. Thanks Kit - I'm so pleased it wasn't a complete disaster in the end :)

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  9. Very patriotic! I do love all the cakes decorated like this around at the moment, and yours looks lovely and fresh. I like the hidden inner cake - that pan is very clever!

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    1. Thanks - it's a great pan but I still havent worked out how to use it properly! one day... I hope :)

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  10. Truly fantastic looking cake. So worth the effort!

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  11. Very nice! I've never used a checkerboard tin or made a cake like that before but I assumed you were supposed to alternate the colours around each ring, not do the outer ring one colour, the inner ring another colour etc? I guess if you're doing several layers it doesn't matter as you then stack them, but could you do it this way with just one layer and still get a checkerboard effect? What do the instructions say?

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    1. You're supposed to make 3 layers and stack them and that's what it says on the box. Usually there's only 2 colours but it can be done with 3 as well - just have to make sure each layer has 1 of each colour. One day I'll get it right :)

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  12. Hardly an epic fail, it looks amazing. I'm really impressed with your perseverance. And the top looks great too - a true blue Jubilee Cake. Hope the festivities went well.

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    1. Thanks Choclette! The festivities were brilliant and I'm a little sad that it's all over although my oven is breathing a sigh of relief :)

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  13. Wow! I'd never heard of a checkerboard cake before I read this post, it looks really complicated! I still think this cake looks fab though, checkerboard or not! I wanted to do a union jack cake too but had to choose between that or cake toppers and the cake toppers won!

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    1. I love the effect of a checkerboard cake - it's not too difficult with a special pan but I just can't seem to manage it! Cake toppers are a good choice :)

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