Victoria Sponge Cake with Chocolate Glaze

I have a confession to make. I am at my highest weight ever. No, really. I've never been this heavy in all my life. And no prizes for guessing the reason behind this monstrous piling up of kilos. My life has become a constant struggle between being loyal to my blog and watchful about my health. It's quite a pain really.

At times I feel like taking a break from cooking, reduce some weight in the process and gain it all back once I resume. So Plan A cancelled. Plan B says that I cook only healthy stuff and prize myself with one sinful dish after I shed every kilo. But tell me, would you read my blog if I posted only salad recipes? It's fine, you don't have to answer that. I know you won't. Plan C, as my friend Rupsa from Sugar and Spice suggests, is cook, feed others but control yourself. Now tell me, is that ever possible? You can control yourself when you see cucumbers in front of you. But when two huge Victoria sponge cakes with chocolate buttercream sit right in front of your eyes and seduce you with a "come hither" look, can you do much about it?

So all these plans, you see, have been abandoned with elan. But there's one tiny policy that I'm trying to follow. Trying, I said. That is the operative word here. Ever since my pork fest in Sikkim, I'm trying to bake only for others. That way my practice continues, but I don't get the opportunity to devour the entire bloody thing.

The last cake that I made was this shapeless bundt for my Mama, and this time, it was the turn for a Victoria Sponge with Chocolate Buttercream for my Mother's friends who came over for lunch the other day.

Now, a Victoria Sponge is nothing but a basic vanilla sponge cake that you can have anytime, anywhere. It has been given this fancy name as Queen Victoria apparently relished this cake with her afternoon tea. Traditionally, this sponge is served with berries and whipped cream, but my chocolate-lover (which is an understatement in her case) mom wanted a touch of chocolate in it. So the berries and cream were shunned the in stepped chocolate buttercream.
The product, I dare say, was delicious. Soft layers of sponge sandwiched with luscious creamy chocolate with a thick chocolate layer on top was the perfect dessert after a monsoon lunch. I had half a piece (savoured it for as long as I could) and nearly died of happiness by the end of it!

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients:

For the cake:

Flour: 210 gm
Sugar: 130 gm
Eggs: 3
Baking powder: 2 tsp
Butter, softened at room temperature: 75 gm
Vegetable oil: 50 ml
Vanilla essence: 11/2 tsp
Milk: 1/2 cup (or according to requirement)
Salt: 1/2 tsp

For the buttercream:

Water: 125 ml
Dark brown sugar: 30 grams
Butter (cubed): 75 grams
Dark Chocolate (finely chopped): 150 grams

Method:

1. In a bowl, sift flour, salt and 2 tsp baking powder and set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugar using a hand blender. Add oil and eggs one by one and continue mixing till smooth and fluffy.

3. Put away the blender and add flour gradually folding it into the batter until just combined. Add the milk bit by bit to loosen the consistency. It should be of ribbon-like consistency —  not too tight and thick neither very liquidy.

4. Preheat oven to 180º Celsius and line a round cake tin with baking parchment. Butter the base and sides thoroughly.

5. Pour the batter inside the pan and bake for 25-28 minutes till a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to rest on wire rack for 10-15 minutes before unmoulding it.

6. For the buttercream: Put the water, 30 gm brown sugar and 75 gm butter in a pan over low 

heat to melt.

7. When this mixture begins to bubble, take the pan off the heat and add the chopped chocolate, swirling the pan so that all the chocolate is hit with heat, then leave for a minute to melt before whisking till smooth and glossy.

8. Leave for about 1 hour, whisking now and again.

9. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours, or better still overnight, to get a firmer texture.

10. Now once the cake is cooled completely, slice it horizontally from the middle into two layers. Spread the buttercream on the cut side of the lower layer, sandwich it by the upper layer. Coat the top and sides of the cake with the buttercream. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours for the perfect texture.

 11. Cut into neat triangles and pounce! Oh diet, RIP.

A dessert a week challenge: Week 23