My favourite vanilla sponge recipe

I love this recipe for a vanilla loaf or tea cake as it is very simple, I always have the ingredients and it is delicious and versatile. It's great with a cup of tea, it can be glazed to make it more impressive or it can be served with fruit and whipped cream to make a very acceptable dessert.

 

Begin by preheating the oven to 170 Celsius (conventional ovens) or 150 for fan ovens like mine. I prepare my loaf pan by spaying it with cake release spray and nothing else. This works wonders!

227g grams of soft butter or in this case baking spread are needed. I weigh this in the mixing bowl using digital scales.

I have said before how much I prefer baking spread to butter. Try it and taste the difference yourself.

Baking spread does not need to be brought to room temperature so it is always ready to go! I like the little rolling pin recipe card holder that was a present from a relative in Canada.

To the butter/spread add 1 1/2 cups of caster sugar.

Here is my homemade vanilla caster sugar which I prefer for all baking. Just keep adding your dry, used vanilla pods to the tub and fill with sugar. Simple!

Prepare the only wet ingredients in a mixing jug. Here are 5 eggs with 2 tsp of pure vanilla extract. Don't whisk them together.

Having the wet ingredients in a jug makes it easy to add them to the batter.

Cream the butter and sugar together either by hand or in your stand mixer. You want to mix them on high for a good 4-5 minutes until you have a pale golden texture like this:

You can't overbeat your cake at this stage so don't worry!

With the mixer on slow, add the egg/vanilla mixture one egg at a time, increasing the speed after each addition to blend well. Reduce the speed to slow again before adding the next one.

The dry ingredients are simply 2 cups of plain flour, 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of baking powder which you can sift but I just whisk them together

With the mixture on slow add the dry ingredients gradually to the rest of the mixture. You can overwork the batter at this stage so mix slowly so you don't develop the gluten in the flour and end up with bread, not cake!

This is the velvety consistency you want from the final batter. Use a spatula to give it all one final mix and incorporate any bits the mixer has missed.

Put the mixture in your prepared tin, level and then tap it on the worktop to release any trapped air pockets. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool the cake in the pan for an hour, release and then cool completely on a rack.

When cool, the cake is ready to eat but if you wrap it in clingfilm and leave it for 24 hours it seems to get even more delicious and the flavours really develop. This makes it a great 'bake ahead' cake and it can be frozen.

I glazed the cake with icing sugar, some milk and a little vanilla whisked together until quite thick. I like the drizzle effect down the sides. Place the cooling rack over a sheet pan lined with foil to collect any excess. Allow icing to set, slice and enjoy!