During half term, I was talking to my daughter about the school dinners I had when I was at primary school (back in the 80s) and I always looked forward to my school dinner pudding. Talking to her about it was a lovely little trip down memory lane. I’m probably biased but it was the best school dinner cake ever.
A delicious vanilla sponge cake with thick white icing sugar topped off with lots and lots of sprinkles, it was always rainbow sprinkles.
It turns out, she doesn’t eat this when she has school dinners. As she is a huge fan of baking, we thought we would make one and she would get a taste of a retro school cake from my school days.
When it comes to suitability, here are a few tips before you get started. Many of the ingredients can be bought from your local zero waste shop. A quick search on Google will help with this.
The thing I love about zero waste shops is that you turn up with your empty container and you can buy exactly how much you need. This is a great way to avoid food waste and plastic waste from unnecessary plastic packaging. For the eggs, a great option to be to see if you have a local farmers market. Because the food has travelled from the farm (which is probably local), the carbon footprint will be incredibly low. Plus, you’re supporting a local business. That’s always a good thing!
If you fancy giving it a go, below you’ll find instructions and old school cake recipe – there’s a printable download a the bottom of the page
Ingredients for the cake
- 200g of butter (I tend to go with unsalted butter)
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 3 medium eggs (or 2 large eggs)
- 175g of caster sugar
- 200g self-raising flour
Ingredients for the Icing
- 220g Icing sugar (I prefer white but you can use pink icing if you prefer)
- Little water
- Sprinkles / Sugar strands
Other things you will need
- Large mixing bowl
- Wire rack
- Wooden spoon
- Sieve
- Baking tin (mine is square, which I bought second hand, a small rectangular tray will work well)
- Electric whisk (optional)
Method
- Set the oven temperature to 170 degrees c fan (338 degrees f)
- Line your baking tray with greaseproof paper
- Add the butter and caster sugar in a bowl and mix until creamy
- Add one egg and mix well
- Add the vanilla extract and remaining eggs one at a time. Ensure everything in mixed very well.
- Finally, add the self raising flour and mix well until everything resembles a smooth cake batter
- Pour the cake mix into your prepared tin and smooth so it’s even
- Place in the centre of the oven for about 20 – 25 minutes until the cake is golden brown
- To check if the cake is fully baked, put a knife in the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready
- Place the cake on a wire rack and allow it to cool to room temperature
- Once the cake is completely cooled down. It’s time to make the icing
- Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl and add very little water and mix
- Using the back of the spoon, gently spread the icing mix until the top of the cake is fully covered with icing
- While the icing sugar is still wet, scatter lots of colourful sprinkles on the top of your cake
- Let the icing dry and you’ve got your simple vanilla school cake !
I cut them up into squares and place them in an airtight container. In this house, they will be gone in a few days.
Whenever we baked at school, we were allowed to lick the bowl. Obviously, nowadays, this is quite unhygienic and children are licking smooth batter from the sides of the bowl, remembering that the mixture has raw eggs in it! Whether you’d be happy for your little one to lick the bottom of the bowl with their finger is a judgment call. As it’s only us at home, my daughter happily licks the back of the spoon.
When I was talking to my other half to see if he had a similar school sponge cake when he was younger and he did (he’s only three years younger than me) but he seemed to be absolutely horrified that I used to eat it with warm vanilla custard (it was sometimes pink custard). It turns out, he never had custard when he was younger, he would have it on its own.
As well as saving on your ingredients, you can save on essential kitchen products from blenders to bowls with Dunelm voucher codes
We used to have jelly and sometimes chocolate cake but this has to be the best school cake ever. If you’re a lover of old school puddings, give this recipe a go and let me know how you get on!
Here’s the printable recipe card to print off at home (no sign up required!)
