I saw Gatsby last weekend. And I was inspired.
Brace yourself for part one of my Gatsby posts.
It was beautiful and opulent and slightly magical. The dresses were all over-the-top and the settings were too fabulous to be real. And I loved them for that.
Nick Carraway is idealistic, Jordan Baker is marvelous and Gatsby is a dreamer. The film is full of people who would make fabulous dinner guests – they’re flawed and impulsive, but imagine the stories they could share! Daisy appears to have no opinion on anything, but at least she added to the beautiful scenery. As long as she’d agree to just sit there and bat her eyelashes, I’d let her partake in our dinner soiree.
I’d never read the book (I know, judge me as you see fit), but I think that doing things in excess is a good mantra to live by!
I’m all for simple recipes usually, but for two posts you’re going to have to allow me a bit of opulence. This sponge is easy AND it looks fabulous – what more could you want? It’s my nanna’s recipe, so it’s tried and tested. Unfortunately the sponge didn’t turn out as big as it should have because of my impatience – I like to think that it was slightly to do with the humidity in the air today though.
Don’t be disheartened by its flatness, when you do the recipe right, this cake IS old-school glamour.
Gatsby-inspired sponge
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1tsp baking powder
- 3tbsp water
- 3 tbsp of lemon juice
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Grease cake tin and sprinkle with sifted icing sugar.
Separate egg whites and put the yolks to one side. Beat the egg whites in an electric mixer until they’re stiff. Don’t get impatient like I did, this leads to flat sponges! It should take about 8 minutes at a high speed on your mixer. Persevere!
Add the yolks to the stiff whites mixture and continue beating until the mixture thickens.
Add your sugar and allow it to just combine then sift in the flour and baking powder. Squeeze in the lemon juice and mix it in gently – try to let as little air out of the mixture as possible.
Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. What I would normally do with a sponge is cut it in half and then fill the middle with copious amounts of jam and cream. Being unable to cut my pancake of a sponge in half, I whipped up the cream, added 1/2 a cup of icing sugar to it and then folded some watered down jam into it to make icing.
So put your flapper dresses on, buy some fake diamonds and drink everything out of a champagne flute – Gatsby makes his own reality more fantastic through his imaginings, and so should we!
Host an afternoon tea and add a little sparkle to it.
I spoke about preparing for the Boy’s birthday last post. The melting moments were sent off to his work (and Instagrammed by me, obviously) and thoroughly enjoyed by his work mates. I was informed that the vanilla melting moments were better than the chocolate – the chocolate ones are too cakey, you need a glass of milk to accompany them. Duly noted!
This post is just a catch up of his birthday – which means no recipe, sorry friends! The boy requested salad and a sponge cake for his birthday meal and I’m fine with doing salads, it’s the sponge that irritates me. I can whip up multi-layered cakes without too much fuss, but sponges leave me stumped for some reason. Continue reading “Birthday recap and jam ramblings”
