How cute are these bite-sized little sponges? The perfect treat for afternoon tea (or morning, or evening…), simple to make and easy to transport and assemble too.
For an after-work afternoon tea this evening (how nice is it to be able to do things outside post-5pm), I wanted something that was simple to make, but wouldn’t get spoilt in the sticky heat of my car all day. I made the sponges last night, carefully packed them in an airtight container, layered with greaseproof paper, and took little pots of strawberry jam and pre-made buttercream to snappily assemble on arrival at my friend’s house.
The recipe is a basic Victoria sponge, but eked out with a little milk, instead of using 2 eggs and ending up with too much mixture.
Ingredients makes 5 mini sandwiches
75g butter
75g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste (or equivalent vanilla essence)
1 large egg
15ml milk
75g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Strawberry jam and a small amount of vanilla buttercream to fill (15g butter + 30g icing sugar should be plenty)
Method
Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla. Beat in the egg and milk, before folding in the sieved flour and baking powder.
Grease a muffin tin well (I used cake release spray), and spoon 1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons into each hole. Bake at 180 degrees for 7-8 minutes until the sponge is springy, and starts to come away a little from the sides.
How cute are those little sponges!
Once cool, layer up half of the sponges with vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam…
…before carefully sandwiching together with the other halves:
Perfect for a summer’s evening afternoon tea!
