School Cake

When craving cake, there’s loads of recipes to choose from. But, if you’re looking for something quick, that’s as easy as 1-2-3, you’ve got to try this school cake recipe. You’ll probably even have it memorised by the end of this blog, because it uses equal weights of the main ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, and flour!

What Is School Cake?

It’s a soft vanilla sponge, topped with a thick white icing, and colourful sprinkles. This is more than just a sweet treat; it’s national nostalgic delight. For decades, school cake has been served at school dinners across the UK.

The iconic decoration sparks childhood memories and joy, no wonder it holds such a special place in the hearts of many. The sponge cake is the magic behind this school cake recipe. It uses equal weights of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. It’s a simple ratio, that gives you a light and fully sponge cake, that melts in your mouth.

Did you know there’s a chocolate version too? That’s right, it’s really easy to transform this school cake recipe into a chocolatey one, just by adding one simple ingreident – cocoa powder! Unlike most chocolate cake recipes, this one doesn’t require any chocolate or double cream.

Cake And Custard

When searching for a school cake recipe, you may see this dessert go by other names like cake and cusard. The reason behind this, is because school cake can be served on its own, or more traditionally, with a generous topping of hot custard.

School Cake

A soft vanilla sponge, topped with a thick white icing, and colourful sprinkles.

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

Vanilla Sponge Cake

• 3 small/medium eggs
• 172 g butter
• 172 g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
• 172 g self-raising flour
• 15 ml milk

Icing And Decoration

• 170 g icing sugar
• 30 ml milk (or 2-3 tbsp)
• 30 g sprinkles

Instructions

 

Vanilla Sponge Cake

• Pre-heat your oven to 170ºC / 340°F and line a 8×8 inch baking tray with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, whisk your butter and sugar together, until light and fluffy.
• Add your vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract).
• Add your eggs, one at a time, whisking thoroughly before adding the next.
• Fold in your self-raising flour, using a wooden spoon or spatula, just until no flour streaks remain.
• If the cake batter is too thick, stir in a dash of milk (around 15ml).
• Pour your cake batter to your pre-lined baking tray and bake for 40 minutes. The cake will rise and turn a beautiful golden colour. You'll know it's ready, if you insert a skewer, and it comes out clean.

Icing And Decoration

• Let the cake completely cool down, before flipping over, so that the flat side is facing up.
• In a bowl, add your icing sugar then add your milk a little at a time, mixing thoroughly before adding more.
• Once the icing has a thick pouring consistency, dollop it over your cake, and gently spread it out.

Notes

• Having some excess parchment paper on the sides of your baking tray, will make it easier to remove your cake.
• For the icing, you can use water instead of milk. I prefer milk, because it makes the icing an opaque white colour.
• If you prefer a thinner icing, add more milk.