Recipe This | Victoria Sponge Cake In Air Fryer (2024)

A light sponge cake recipe doesn’t get any better than an air fryer Victoria sponge. A vanilla sponge is cooked in the air fryer, sliced in half, and then two halves are sandwiched together with jam and whipped cream.

This air fryer sponge cake is also very easy to mix and match with flavours and perfect for learning how to make cake the air fryer way.

Victoria Sponge In Air Fryer

Yesterday we shared with you how to make a delicious moist chocolate cake in the air fryer and today, we are sharing with you our other joint favourite cake and that is how to make a Victoria sponge cake in the air fryer.

Whether you call it a Victoria sandwich, a Victoria sponge or just refer to it as a vanilla cake, it is brilliant for cooking in the air fryer and also fantastic for all the British history that goes alongside it.

As a kid, my grandma would make it for me all the time and then comment that it always was her favourite cake. After she died, I found out that she followed the Bero Victoria sponge recipe.

I then spent many years making the Bero Victoria sponge and slowly adapting it and making the recipe better and better.

Then of course I started making the old school sponge cake in the air fryer and when we were putting together our air fryer cookbook we all agreed Victoria sponge had to be included.

It was then perfected even more for the cookbook and now it is our go to whenever we need a vanilla cake.

Can You Bake Cakes In An Air Fryer?

Yes, you can bake cakes in the air fryer and once you follow a few good recipes for air fryer cake you will love it.

Though you might need to tweak your air fryer a little as they all operate differently, and some air fryers are better than others at baking cakes.

What Is A Victoria Sponge Cake Recipe?

A Victoria sponge is a British classic vanilla sponge cake. It gets its name from the late Queen Victoria who loved a slice of this sponge cake.

Its other name Victoria sandwich comes from the way the cake comes together and how you cut in half, then add a layer of cream and jam and then sandwich the two smaller sponges together. Which we will be showing you exactly how to do with this air fryer cake.

What Is The Best Air Fryer Cake Pan?

For making an easy Victoria sponge cake in air fryer, we recommend a silicone cake pan. Though most of them come in packs of two, which is perfect for when you are making more than one cake.

This is the silicone pans we use. Though of course, you can use traditional cake tins like these in the air fryer, but you have to grease them first and scrub after, which you don’t need to do with silicone.

How Far In Advance Can I Make A Sponge Cake?

You can make an air fryer sponge cake up to 5 days in advance but I don’t recommend doing so.

This is because you want a moist sponge cake recipe and the sooner you eat it, then the better it will taste.

Usually if I have a celebration that I am making a sponge cake for, I will make the cake the day before.

Why Is My Victoria Sponge Cake Dry?

I learnt how to bake cakes by my grandma. She loved to bake and I used to get great joy out of watching her baking everything and anything and then licking out the bowl afterwards.

I used to watch her alter recipes from her favourite cookbooks and what I learnt most is that the very thick cake batter would produce a dry cake.

You need moisture in a cake for it to be moist and not feel heavy.

Just add in 4tbsp of luke warm water into your cake batter and it can make a HUGE difference. As well as a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.

Victoria Sponge Cake With Lemon Curd

If we are to learn anything from the Victorian era or the 1950’s housewife that made sponge cake during the rationing, it is to make your cake with what you have to hand.

Obviously, flour, butter, sugar, and eggs are a given. But the other Victoria sponge cake ingredients can be swapped.

When I made my sponge cake, I was short on vanilla and instead opted for lemon curd. It makes a fantastic flavour to your sponge cake. You could also swap for orange marmalade, lemon juice, or whatever you have available.

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Victoria Sponge Cake Ingredients

Famous 4 – Of course, like we any simple sponge cake it starts with the famous 4. Self raising flour (self rising in the USA), butter, sugar and eggs. Most importantly we recommend granulated sugar as it produces a much better flavour. Large eggs as more eggs in a cake the better it rises and the lighter it is and of course unsalted butter.

Liquid – Then for the liquid to bring the cake together and to make sure you have the best Victoria sandwich cake recipe we recommend some milk and extra virgin olive oil. Oil in cake is a genius and a shame it wasn’t a thing during the 1800’s era.

Then we recommend some vanilla extract for flavour and you could also use other flavourings depending on your preferences.

Also, if you are making a traditional Victoria sandwich like we are doing, then you will also want some double cream (same as heavy cream) and some jam to bring everything together.

Can You Recommend An Air Fryer?

I often get asked which air fryers I recommend and which one I use. In 95% of our air fryer recipes, we use either the Philips Air Fryer XL or the Cosori XL because they are the best ones, we have found out of many air fryers we have tried over the years. You can click on the links above and read up on them.

Plus, we recommend you head over to our air fryer recipes category as we have more than 500 tried and tested everyday air fryer recipes and have been air frying for 10+ years.

Get Some Silicone Cake Pans

We bought some round red silicone cake pans and they have been a life saver. Similar to these ones here.

They are one of those amazing air fryer accessories that you must own, and you can do so much with. They are ideal because when you have cooked the food, you simply peel away the silicone so no scrubbing to do or lining with parchment paper.

You can also get them for different air fryer sizes such as 6 inch, 7 inch or 8 inch.

I use them all the time and have used them to melt chocolate in (yes really), air fryer frittata, air fryer banana bread, air fryer lemon drizzle cake, air fryer brownies and so much more.

🤛Be sure to click here and order some for your air fryer and just think of all the different ways you can use them!! 🤜

How To Make Victoria Sponge In Air Fryer?

• Sugar. Start by adding to a large mixing bowl the butter and sugar and mix with a hand mixer until fluffy and starting to change colour.
• Eggs. Next crack the eggs into the bowl, along with adding the vanilla and olive oil and mix for a few more minutes with your hand mixer until well mixed.
• Extras. Then add in the milk and continue to mix until smooth and then add in the flour. Once it is well mixed it is ready for air frying.
• Fill. Pour the sponge cake batter into a silicone cake pan and then place the cake pan into the air fryer basket.
• Cook. Place the Victoria sponge in the air fryer and air fry for 20 minutes at 160c/320f, then cover with foil followed by 15 minutes at 150c/300f.
• Cool. Then remove the silicone pan from the air fryer, peel away the silicone once cool enough to handle and completely cool before decorating.

Victoria Sponge Air Fryer Finishing Touches

Now you have made your sponge cake in the air fryer, its time to transform your cake into a classic Victoria sponge cake.

Once your sponge is cold we recommend placing it on a cake stand as its easier, and slicing the cake in half horizontally to create two smaller cakes.

Then spread jam over the bottom layer, followed by whipping up some cream and adding in the cream.

We have a rose shaped piping nozzle so used this because it would then create an amazing cream layer. But you can just spoon it on if you prefer.

Plus, I love the English rose theme of the jam and the rose style cream.

Then you can add your top layer of your cake, sandwich it together and you have the perfect Victoria sponge cake recipe.

Then all is left is the sprinkling of icing sugar.

Of course, if you don’t want to cut in half your cakes, spread the mix between two silicone cake pans and then fill the top of one and then sandwich them together that way instead.

Don’t Over Whip Your Victoria Sponge

If you read many of the old fashioned sponge cake recipes they will tell you, don’t over whip and fold in the flour and don’t over whisk it.

Well, let me show you the difference. I made two cakes and overwhipped one making it much paler than the others, and they looked like this:

Then as you can see from the photo below, we have 1 perfect cake and 1 that has risen a bit weird.

Though with the cake we found that the overwhipped one was much heavier than the other one.

Listen To Victoria Sponge Cake

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More Air Fryer Cake Recipes!

• Air Fryer Chocolate Cake
• Air Fryer Lemon Drizzle Cake
• Air Fryer Carrot Cake
• Air Fryer Giant Doughnut Cake
• Air Fryer Easter Cake
• Air Fryer Christmas Cake

This air fryer victoria sponge recipe is an updated post and was originally shared on Recipe This in 2016.

Your Victoria sponge in air fryer recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.

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