Victoria Sponge Pancakes
We honestly didn't think we could improve on a classic Victoria sponge, and then we made it into pancakes. These are everything you love about the British teatime icon: fluffy sponge, whipped cream, and jammy strawberries. But they're stacked up on a plate for breakfast, which feels just a little bit naughty in the best possible way. The batter comes together in minutes, and the dairy-free whipped cream is genuinely so good you'll be sneaking spoonfuls straight from the bowl. Make these on a lazy weekend morning and watch everyone at the table lose their minds.
Before You Start
- Mixing bowl
- Whisk
- Frying pan
- 2x round cookie cutters (same size)
- Plant-based whipping cream chilled & ready to whip
Ingredients
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 4 tbsp sunflower oil - or vegetable oil
- 150g self raising flour
- 30g caster sugar
- 180ml plant-based milk
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- good pinch of sea salt
- 125ml plant-based whipping cream
- 40g icing sugar
- raspberry jam
- vanilla essence
Method
Make the batter
- Put the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a bowl and mix to combine
- Slowly add the dairy-free milk and whisk to a smooth batter
- Stir in the vanilla and set to one side
Prepare the whipped cream
- Add the whipped cream to a bowl and whip with a whisk until stiff peaks form
- Add the icing sugar and vanilla essence and mix
- Put the bowl in the fridge for later
Cook the pancakes
- Warm the vegetable oil in the frying pan over medium heat
- Place the cookie cutters in the pan, pour batter into both the cutters, filling them halfway
- Cook for 3-5 minutes until golden on the underside
- Flip the cookie cutter over and cook the pancakes for a further 2-3 minutes
Finish and serve
- Pop the pancakes out of the cookie cutters
- Place one pancake on a plate, spread with raspberry jam, spoon on whipped cream, top with the second pancake, dust with icing sugar and serve immediately
- Repeat the process until the ingredients are used up
Tips & Variations
- Get the heat right: We find medium-low is the sweet spot here. Too hot and the pancakes brown before they cook through. Give them time and they'll be perfectly golden and fluffy every time.
- Swap the jam: Strawberry is the classic but raspberry jam works brilliantly too. Henry always uses a really good quality jam here because it makes such a difference when it's the star of the show.
- Make the cream first: Ian always preps the whipped cream before anything else so it has maximum time to firm up in the fridge. It makes stacking so much easier and the whole thing holds together better.
Why This Works
The trick here is getting the batter to the right consistency: not too thick, not too runny. This ensures the pancakes cook up with that proper fluffy, almost sponge-like texture that makes them taste just like the real thing. The vanilla in both the batter and the cream is doing a lot of heavy lifting, so don't skip it. And that whipped cream needs to go in the fridge while you cook the pancakes so it stays stiff and holds everything together when you stack them up.