If you ever enjoyed school dinners (and I use the word "enjoyed" judicially), you will probably remember that the puds were the best part. I remember jelly and ice cream, arctic roll, angel delight with a curly swirl of some artificial cream, and, my favourite, sponge and custard.
Jump to:
Sometimes the sponge would be jam and coconut, sometimes chocolate (in which case, the custard was pink), other times a simple vanilla sponge.
Because I came from a "divorced family", I used to have free school dinners, and I would often look out sadly from the school dining room as my friends sat outside and enjoyed their packed lunches in the sunshine. But then, I could enjoy those stodgy puddings, whilst they had to make do with a penguin bar or, for the really unlucky ones, an apple.
Old fashioned cakes always hold a dear place in my heart, they remind me of a simpler, gentler time, and although my own family were not big bakers, we often went to jumble sales. There was always a table full of victoria sponge cakes, scones, rock cakes, bakewell tarts, and one of my all time favourites, the school cake.
What is Vanilla School Dinner Cake?
I don't remember it being called school cake, I think it might have been called hundreds and thousands cake, on account of the sprinkles. What I do know, is that the cake was a light vanilla sponge, topped with the simplest of water icing, and lots of hundreds and thousands. I had completely forgotten about it until I saw it on Pinterest, where it is really popular in Australia, and I also saw it for sale in my local Co-op! Sadly, that version had egg and butter in it.
Ingredients
- Plant-Based Milk. I used soy milk, but you could use coconut milk, almond milk or cashew milk.
- White Sugar. This is a non-negotiable as only white sugar gives that pure vanilla sponge flavour AND colour. Brown sugar adds a more complex flavour that is not needed here. You could, however, use your favourite sugar-substitute.
- Flavourless oil. I use sunflower oil. You could use melted cocomut oil, although that does add a slight flavour.
- Vanilla Extract. Again, non-negotiable.
- Egg Replacer. I use Orgran but you could use Bob's Red Mill too. Instead of whisking this separately and adding it to the mixture, I blend this into all the other wet ingredients.
- Plain Flour. I would like to use a cake flour to see if this gives a lighter texture sponge next time.
- Cornflour. Lightens the sponge.
- Baking Powder.
- Icing Sugar (confectioners sugar), again, this is essential for the icing.
- Sprinkles. I use Dr Oetker brand as they are vegan.
Method
This is a really simple cake to make, and can form the basis of many other vanilla sponge sheet cakes.
I use a 9" square silicone brownie pan because I'm lazy and dislike lining tins. However, if you use a regular tin, make sure to line it.
- Preheat oven to 170c.
- In a blender, whizz together all the wet ingredients, plus the sugar and egg replacer.
- In a mixing bowl, pour the wet ingredients.
- Sift together the flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt over the top of the wet ingredients.
- Using a whisk, mix thoroughly until you can't see any lumps.
- Pour into your prepared cake tin. The batter is quite runny, so don't worry!
- Bake for between 25-30 minutes or until it is perfectly risen and golden brown on top. It will spring back when you touch it.
- Leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Once cold, turn out.
- Once cold, you can make the icing.
- Add the icing sugar to a mixing bowl, and, starting with about 2 tablespoon cold tap water, start to mix.
- Water icing is really fun to make because it seems like that tiny bit of water won't do anything, but with continued mixing with a fork, you'll see it start to form a thick paste.
- You want the icing to be pourable but not runny. More spreadable. So, add more water until you get a spreadable consistency. If you add too much water, don't panic, simply add a little more icing sugar!
- Carefully spread this over the top of your cake, and then liberally cover with sprinkles.
- Leave to set completely before cutting into squares.
This will last in the tin for about 5 days.
Try my other simple vegan baking recipes
- The Best Vegan Banana Bread
- Shortbread Plum Squares
- Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake
- Easy Spiced Pumpkin Squares
- Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
- A Classic Pumpkin Pie
- Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
- Old-Fashioned Rock Cakes
- Lamingtons
📋 Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup (1 cup) Soy Milk or plant-based milk of your choice
- 1 cup (1 cup) White Sugar
- ¼ cup Oil I use vegetable or sunflower
- 1 tablespoon Egg Replacer I like to use Orgran
- 3 tablespoon Water
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1½ cups Plain Flour
- ¼ cup Cornflour
- 2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- pinch Salt
Icing
- 200 g (1½ cups) Confectioners Sugar (icing sugar)
- Water for mixing
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170c.
- In a blender, whizz together the sugar, oil, water, egg replacer, milk and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Pour this mixture into a mixing bowl.
- Sift together the flour, cornflour, salt and baking powder over the top of the wet ingredients.
- Using a whisk, mix together until there are no lumps.
- Pour into your prepared cake tin. The batter will be quite thin.
- Bake for between 25-30 minutes or until light golden and springs back to the touch.
- Leave to cool, in the tin, on a cooling rack.
To make the icing
- Once your cake is cool, you can ice it! Whisk together the icing sugar and a little water until you have a thick but smooth and pourable icing. This will only need 2-3 tablespoon cold water. Add a little more, drop by drop. If you make it too runny, add a little more icing sugar.
- Spread over the cake, taking care not to go over the edges, then sprinkle generously with sprinkles/hundreds thousands.
- Cut into squares once the icing has set (a couple of hours).
- Store in a tin for up to a week.
Did you make this recipe? Let me know!