Q; When is a cake not a cake?

A; When it’s a sponge! As someone who grew up in the sixties and seventies I was taught by very straightlaced ladies in an all-girls school. The consequence was that every subject was given an equal footing. Housecraft included. We learned the traditional rules behind food production and presentation, with the end of year exams testing our knowledge. So a cake has 4 main ingredients; fat, sugar, flour and eggs. It keeps well because of the fat content and other ingredients can be added to make it flavoured. A sponge however, only has 3 ingredients – eggs, sugar and flour. No fat, hence “fatless sponge”. It doesn’t keep beyond the day it was made and so often was put into a trifle – trifle sponge. Think Swiss roll, sponge flan (remember those?) Well I suppose nowadays these things aren’t important to most people but having learnt them I find it hard to let them go and they do actually have a relevance. Like scone cutters, but that’s another story…..