It’s no secret that a large part of the whole NGS experience is having cake. I’ve yet to find an NGS garden where home-made teas aren’t served. It’s part-and-parcel of opening; one can’t be done without the other.
It’s also becoming less of a secret to everyone, that the cakes served on our own NGS Open Days are worth going for alone. Half – sometimes more – of the comments visitors write in the guest book are around the cakes. From the lovely compliments they generate such as being, “the best thing I have ever willingly put in my mouth”, to a thinly-veiled marriage proposal, the array of cakes are a standout attraction, often upstaging the garden itself.
While this is all well and good, it is causing problems. The main one being that in every NGS event this year, despite baking increasingly greater numbers, we have run out of cake. Thankfully, this happens towards the end of the afternoon, when there are only handful of visitors let down, but it feels awful to have to say, “sorry, we’ve had a run on the sponge”.
So for our final NGS Open Day of 2024, scheduled for Sunday 25th August, I am determined not to run out. I’ve spent the weekend making eight sets of sponges, which are now in the freezer. They’ll be retrieved and made up the day before opening, when I’ll also make another set of six or so. Last year, our visitor numbers were such that I could freshly make all the cakes I needed the day before. This year, not pre-making them would have been disastrous.
I thought I might just go through some of the cake menu here, revealing a little of what goes into the cakes and why they’re so sought-after.
Victoria Sponge
What can go wrong with a Victoria Sponge? The easiest, most basic of cakes. A bit of vanilla-flavoured sponge, jam slapped in the middle and you’re done?
I should cocoa.
I start making Victoria Sponge six months in advance, when I infuse golden caster sugar with several vanilla pods. That’s right, there is no Vanilla extract nor any Vanilla essence in the Victoria Sponge. The flavour all comes from real vanilla pods, which have been infusing in sugar since late autumn.
It’s divine.
A generous layer of buttercream with some blackcurrant jam sandwiches the middle. The tartness of the jam stops the cake from becoming sickly and provides a perfect counterbalance to the sweet vanilla.
Lemon Drizzle
This cake sells fast.
A light, airy sponge flavoured with real lemon zest, lemon oil and drizzled with lemon juice packs a not-so-subtle “zing” for the unsuspecting. The sharpness is tempered by a buttercream filling, which itself is cut through with lemon curd. Finally, the top is drizzled with lemon juice and sugar mixed in just the right proportions so that it glitters like diamonds in sunlight.
Chocolate Cake
This is a very chocolatey cake, created by my wanton urges to satisfy my chocolate cravings. It’s sinful and luxurious through having both cocoa power and Belgian milk chocolate in the sponge. The bitterness of the cocoa powder is offset by the sweetness of the melted chocolate, making it a fantastic choice for both kids and adults. A decadent dollop of black treacle gives a velvet texture and enhances the chocolate flavour even further. Chocolate fudge icing layers the middle, with playfully poised chocolate buttons on top.
There is no relief from chocolate; it’s in the sponge, it’s in the filling, it’s in the decoration. I won’t call this “death by chocolate”, but after you have a taste of this cake, you might think you’ve gone to heaven.
Cherry Bakewell
A soft, moist sponge made with real almond flour, sandwiched with black cherry jam and pitted cherries in the middle, with a top enveloped in pure white icing and unashamedly piled with toasted flaked almonds.
It’s the Cherry Bakewell we all know and love, but in the form of a cake.
Eton Mess Cake
This is a relative new-comer, but that didn’t stop one visitor from having a second helping. It starts with a base of vanilla sponge. White Belgian chocolate-dipped meringues are then crushed and folded into softly-whipped double cream along with summer strawberries and blueberries.
The entire cream, chocolate, fruit and meringue ensemble is piled high onto the sponge. It is the most glorious mess of textures and flavours, with sweet competing with sharp and soft competing with crunchy. The battle for your tastebuds can only end in one lip-smacking, finger-licking outcome.
Ginger Cake
Ginger cake is a staple and for good reason.
To begin with, our ginger cake is an absolute behemoth. Our volunteers undergo manual handling training before they’re allowed to serve this cake. With two types of flour and three types of sugar, the rich, moist stickiness of the gingerbread sponge is only outdone by the pervading deep heat of ginger itself. The sweet buttercream filling doesn’t give much relief, as it is swirled through with ginger syrup and studded throughout with petit nuggets of stem ginger.
This is a favourite for all ginger cake lovers.
Gluten-Free Lemon and Raspberry
This confection confidently cancels all typical stereotypes of being gluten-free. An incredibly moist lemon cake brought about by lemon curd yoghurt, lemon oil and lemon zest. That’s only half the story, as the sponge is also generously embedded with whole fresh raspberries. The cake is sandwiched with softly-whipped dairy cream sharpened by lemon curd yoghurt. More raspberries circle the top along with a lemon icing.
It’s a total eye-opener from a seemingly innocent-looking sponge and it never hangs around for long.
Gluten-Free Black-Forest
A new star in the gluten-free line-up, the first heavy, decadent chocolate sponge is drizzled with cherry syrup before being piled on with dark chocolate ganache, on top of which sits softly-whipped sweet Crème Chantilly, which is then covered by a layer of cherry jam and pitted black cherries. A second chocolate sponge smothered in more ganache completes the sandwich and after all those layers of filling, you have a cake that’s as generous and towering as the trees in the garden.
Other Flavours
There are several other flavours such as carrot cake, coffee and pecan, blackberry and orange etc. but I don’t have the will to continue and describe those without risking breaking into the freezer for the ones that are reserved for our next event.