Instructions
Children’s books can be deceiving. Well, Enid Blyton to be specific.
Tell me, if you can, where a child can live in a world of cucumber sandwiches and ginger beer. Where life consists of an endless series of frolicking adventures through the meadows with a dog called Timmy. Where Aunt Fanny bakes sponge cakes filled with homemade jam and fresh cream.
As a child I wanted this place for my own. I wanted to be one of the Famous Five. Of course that would have meant knocking off either Julian or Dick, because otherwise there’d be six of us, and that just wouldn’t work. I’d probably choose Julian, because he was always so smug. He could meet his end in a mire of quicksand with the life-saving branch temptingly out of reach – very Famous Five!
But for me it was not to be. No dog. No meadows. No sponge cake filled with jam and cream.
But it wasn’t all bad – as a kid growing up in Sydney in the 1980’s the world was one giant BMX track. We roared through the parks and passageways in our own tearaway triumphs.
I think in all honesty that it was the sponge cake I missed most. As a child I had a serious sweet tooth – which probably explains my later career as a pastry chef. But there was no great baker in my family tree, no Aunt Fanny manning the ovens. That role would be mine in the end, and one I relished.
Sponge cakes are work of gastronomic science, testament to the power of the egg. You see unlike most cakes that rely on quality flour for their structure and texture, sponge cakes are built on eggs that have been whipped sufficiently firmly that they can hold the weight of the other ingredients without collapsing. This process will take at least 10 minutes on high speed.
In order to perfect the sponge cake, warm the eggs lightly with the sugar first. This allows the sugar to dissolve, making the whipping process more effective. And once the egg foam has been stabilised, fold in the flour and butter with the lightest of hands. I use a corkscrew technique with a spatula, scraping around the sides from the base to the top in a circular fashion. This ensures that the ingredients are distributed as well as possible without losing all the valuable air that you have beaten into the eggs.
The resulting sponge cake is divine, and great food like this will never go out of fashion, even if the Famous Five are now a little twee. Actually, can you imagine what their new adventures would be like in the 21st century? The Five Solve the Mystery of the Missing Wii-Fit Discs. Eat your heart out Harry Potter!
Nannas sponge cake