Air fryers are gaining in popularity due to their simple and speedy way of cooking – and now the Queen's former chef has revealed you can even cook a cake in the revolutionary appliance.
In a new video on his YouTube channel, Darren McGrady shows how to cook a traditional Victoria Sponge using the air fryer method and also gave a little royal history on the popular cake.
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Darren says: "Air fryers are becoming really popular right now and sponges cook amazingly in the air fryer."
He then gives viewers a tutorial on baking a Victoria Sponge, putting his cake mixture in a normal cake tin then placing it in the air fryer drawer.
Darren uses a KYVOL AF600 air fryer and bakes the cake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes, then repeats this with the other layer of sponge cake. The cake looks perfect when he removes it from the air fryer!
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The sponge cake after being cooked in an air fryer
On the royal history of the Victoria Sponge cake, Darren explains: "Victoria Sponge is a British classic. It dates back to Queen Victoria and even further if we refer it to its original name, Victoria Sandwich.
"Victoria Sandwich appeared in Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management in 1861 but that was nothing like the Victoria Sponge we see around all the tearooms in the world today. It never had baking powder in it.
"The original recipe was created before baking powder. It was beaten and whipped and whipped and whipped so that it actually got a little air in it. And rather than being served round where you could slice it into wedges, it was actually cut into fingers."
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The Victoria Sponge cake is a British classic
Then came the invention of baking powder and the cake was renamed the Victoria Sponge.
Darren tells fans: "Queen Victoria, after Prince Albert died, moved to Osbourne House in the Isle of Wight. They would still make the Victoria Sponge cakes at Buckingham Palace and then it would go down by train with Queen Victoria, then across to the Isle of Wight for her afternoon tea."
How fascinating! We wonder what Victoria would make of the air fryer…
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