Why Was My Victoria Sponge Cake Too Dense?

Our answer

Nigella's recipe for Victoria Sponge can be made using a mixer, a food processor or even a bowl, a wooden spoon and plenty of elbow grease. It should give a light, soft cake with a fine crumb. Milk is added just to give the cake batter a soft "dropping" consistency and doesn't usually particulalry affect the texture of the cake in such small quantities.

There are several reasons why the cake could be dense. You do need to make sure that all of the ingredients are at room temperature so that they blend together easily, which will reduce the risk of the mixture being processed for too long. Also, if the eggs or butter are too cold then the batter may not emulsify properly and that can lead to a heavier, and sometimes slightly greasy, texture. If the cake is made in a food processor then the batter needs an extra 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder (so 3 teaspoons in total) to offset the cake being made as an all-in-one mixture rather than the sugar and butter being creamed together at the beginning. And make sure that the baking powder is not out of date and has been stored correctly. Finally, the cake batter needs to go into the oven as soon as it has been mixed, so make sure that the oven is preheating before you start to make the cake. If the batter has to sit for any length of time or goes into an oven that is too cold then it will not rise properly and could be more dense.