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Get ready for the ultimate nostalgia hit with our recipe for School Cake Sprinkle Sponge with homemade vanilla custard! Old fashioned, fluffy and easy to make, bring back the very best bit of school dinners with this rainbow sprinkle-topped sponge cake.
There are some aspects of school dinners best left in the past, but the puddings? Who can say no to choc ices, iced buns, and everyone’s favourite the sprinkle sponge, served with lashings of hot custard?
Happily, it’s so easy to make at home (even the custard – our vanilla one foolproof, unless of course you want to level up with pink custard!!!) ready for a slick of icing and your favourite sprinkles (we like to alternate between these rainbow sprinkles and hundreds and thousands!)
So, preheat the oven, and let’s get baking!
Ingredients
- butter (salted or unsalted, it depends on your personal preference for baking!)
- caster sugar
- vanilla extract and vanilla paste (extract works better in the sponge, paste in the custard but both are interchangeable in a pinch – but if we had to choose one, we’d use the paste in both!)
- eggs
- self-raising flour
- baking powder
- icing sugar
- rainbow sprinkles
- double cream
- whole milk
- cornflour
Frequently Asked Questions
At room temperature, the sponge should be good for up to 3 days, loosely wrapped in food wrap to keep things soft and moist. We think custard is best eaten just when it’s made but you can keep it in the fridge to gently warm through for another day or so, laying a piece of food wrap on the surface to prevent a skin forming.
Yes! Stork Margarine will work just as well here in place of the butter.
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease and line a square cake tin with baking paper.
Use an electric whisk to mix the butter, sugar and vanilla extract for 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy.
Step 2
Then whisk through the eggs, flour and milk.
Step 3
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for around 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
Step 4
To decorate, mix the icing sugar with 1-2 tbsp water to make a thick, pourable icing.
Spoon over the cake and use the back of the spoon to smooth the icing to the edges. Scatter with the sprinkles.
Step 5
For the custard, add the cream and milk into a pan and gently heat to just below boiling point.
In a bowl, whisk the yolks, cornflour, sugar and vanilla. Gradually pour the hot milk mixture onto the sugar mixture, whisking constantly.
Pour the mixture back into the pan. Heat gently, stirring with a wooden spoon until the custard is thickened.
Step 6
Slice the cake into squares and serve with the custard.
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School Cake Sprinkle Sponge with Custard
Ingredients
- 100 g butter, softened
- 100 g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 100 g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100 g icing sugar
- 25 g sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease and line a square cake tin with baking paper.
- Use an electric whisk to mix the butter, sugar and vanilla extract for 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy. Then whisk through the eggs, flour and milk.
- Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for around 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To decorate, mix the icing sugar with 1-2 tbsp water to make a thick, pourable icing. Spoon over the cake and use the back of the spoon to smooth the icing to the edges. Scatter with the sprinkles.
