Why Is My Victoria Sponge Like A Thin Biscuit?

Our answer

Nigella's Victoria Sponge is a classic vanilla sponge cake. The weight of butter, sugar, eggs and flour should all be the same. As Nigella uses plain (all-purpose) flour, rather than self-raising, baking powder is added and you should make sure that the correct amount is used by measuring with a 5ml teaspoon and 2.5ml half teaspoon. If you make the cake batter in a food processor then you need to add an extra ½ teaspoon of baking powder to compensate for not incorporating air when creaming the butter and sugar. Make sure that the baking powder is within its best before date and has been stored in a cool, dry place, as if it is stored somewhere humid it can expire more quickly.

Make sure that all of the ingredients are at room temperature so that they combine easily. Cold ingredients can lead to a dense and heavy cake. Finally, you mention that it is thin and more like a biscuit, so we wondered if a larger cake tin is being used. If the cake tin is larger than the 20cm/8 inches specified then the sponge layers will be thinner and also if you used the same baking time for a larger cake tin then it would be overbaked, with a more crisp crust and a denser interior.