Victoria Sponge made with a goose egg

I had never used a goose egg before my friend Vana brought me three, having just visited her parents’ farm… I’m not sure that I had ever actually even seen one before. You don’t find many recipes requiring goose eggs.

So, what to do with goose eggs? They can be substituted for chicken eggs, the only problem being their size. You can see from the picture that I either made a very small sponge or had some very large eggs. I weighed mine and they were each the equivalent of 3 to 4 large eggs. If you have a recipe requiring three eggs and a goose egg weighing the same as three eggs, it’s easy.

I thought it would be a great opportunity to make a plain, old-fashioned Victoria Sponge, and to do it the old-fashioned way. Victoria sponges used to be made by weighing the eggs and using the same quantities of flour, sugar and butter. So that’s what I did.

I weighed my goose egg (with the shell on) and it weighed 267g. Therefore I needed 267g SR flour (I cheated and used self raising to avoid having to work out how much baking powder I would then need), 267g butter and 267g sugar. And about a teaspoon of vanilla essence.

When you have your quantities, cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the beaten eggs, one at a time (or some at a time if you are using a goose egg), to the butter mixture. Mix in the vanilla essence. Make sure it is all well combined. Sieve the flour and fold into the mixture.

Victoria Sponge and goose eggs

This quantity of mixture needs to be divided between two greased 8″ sandwich tins that have been lined on the bottom with greaseproof paper. An average Victoria sponge would use 4 hens’ eggs and needs baking for 25-30 minutes at 180°C.

There is a general rule of thumb that can also be followed for making this type of sponge, but it only works with the old imperial measures. I have to admit that most recipes I learnt as a child I still do in pounds and ounces rather than grams.

For Victoria sponge you need twice as much in ounces of the other ingredients as the number of eggs you are using. So, 8oz sugar, 8oz butter, 4 eggs and 8oz SR flour. Or 6oz sugar, 6oz butter, 3 eggs and 6oz SR flour.

Whenever I make Victoria sponge I always start with the number of eggs I’m going to use and weigh the rest out in ounces. And I make it a lot as it is still my favourite base for cupcakes.

So the main question now is what to make with the other two. Thanks Vana!

2 eggs left!

Categories: Baking, Cakes, Recipes

Tags: baking, cake, eggs, goose egg, recipe, vanilla, Victoria sponge