Recipe: Victoria Sponge Sandwich Cake — Recipes from The Kitchn

Before the Victoria sponge, British sponge cakes were leavened only by eggs hand-whisked with sugar until foamy and thick. Sometime in the mid-1800s, an unheralded genius realized that the recent invention of baking powder meant butter could be creamed in with the sugar, resulting in a firmer, longer-lasting, less temperamental sponge.

And that's how we ended up with cake we know today: a toothsome, bouncy sponge that is comparatively easy to whip up and has a rich, buttery flavor. And Queen Victoria, an afternoon tea aficionado, was apparently particularly fond of it.

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