Tottenham cake
Tottenham cake is a delicious vanilla sponge traybake topped with a raspberry flavoured pink icing. It’s a fun, colourful bake kids will love making and eating.
A Tottenham cake is a delicious vanilla sponge traybake topped with a fresh fruity flavoured icing. It’s a classic bake still popular here in the UK and I can see why. It’s so easy to make, it’s a great bake for children – a simple vanilla sponge, topped with icing. There’s no complicated steps or fancy decoration so it’s perfect for anyone new to baking.
Traditionally a Tottenham cake is topped with dessicated coconut but we swapped it for sprinkles to make it a bit more child friendly.
Why is it called a Tottenham cake?
Tottenham cakes date back to the late 1800’s and originate from the North London borough of Tottenham. It was created by a local Quaker baker, Henry Chalkley, as an inexpensive treat for local children.
When the football club Tottenham Hotspur won the FA Cup for the first time in 1901, the cake was given for free to local children in celebration.
It’s a very traditional bake, but is still popular in the UK, and in 2013 was featured in the Great British Bake Off.
How can kids help to make Tottenham cake?
This is a great bake for kids – it’s really easy with everything just getting mixed together in own bowl.
As with most bakes, kids will be able to practice measuring out all the ingredients (great for practising maths), and mixing them all together. And if your children like cracking eggs there are also lots of chances for them to practice.
Finally, this Tottenham cake has the simplest decoration meaning your children can enjoy taking this task on. As well as mashing the fruit to extract the juice, they can mix it with the icing sugar. And something even very young children can is adding the hundreds and thousands, particularly as in this case as more is more!
How can I store Tottenham Cake?
You can keep the cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3-4 days.
If you want to keep it for longer you can freeze it for up to 2-3 months. Simply wrap it well, either as a a whole or in individual portions, in cling film/ glad wrap and pop it in a freezer bag. Defrost it fully before serving it.
What can I use instead of self raising flour?
If you don’t have any self raising flour you can swap it for an equal amount of plain or all purpose flour and an extra 2 teaspoons of baking flour and a pinch of salt.
What is baking spread?
Baking spread (something like Stork) is just a margarine that’s perfect for baking. You can use it instead of butter in a sponge as it tends to make the cake a little lighter and fluffier. Here in the UK the cost of butter seems to keep rising so baking margarine or spread is a fantastic cheaper alternative.
Can I use a different size baking tin?
The recipe is designed for a 9 x 12 inch baking tin. If you use a different sized tin, the baking time and thickness of the cake may vary so keep and eye on it in the over and adjust the baking time as necessary.
Do I have to colour it pink?
No. A Tottenham cake is traditionally pink, (thought to be because the Quakers that originally made it used Mulberries from their churchyard,) but you can make it any colour you want or omit the food colouring altogether. Our icing was naturally a bit pink because of the raspberry juice, but we added a wee bit of food colouring to get the colour we wanted. It won’t affect the taste if you don’t make it pink however.
What other retro bakes can I make?
Or why not try one of our favourite nostalgic bakes:
There are lots of tray bakes you make with the same tin. Why not try our chocolate traybake, chocolate brownies or our blueberry crumble bars.
Or why not try one of our favourite nostalgic bakes:
Treacle sponge
Jam tarts
Sticky toffee pudding
Brioche bread and butter pudding
Sultana cake
Cornflake tart
Madeira cake
Victoria sponge traybake
Vanilla traybake
Iced buns
Useful equipment
You might need the following baking tools/gadgets to make this Tottenham cake:
Digital scales
Freestanding mixer
Mixing bowl
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Baking tin
Wire rack
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.. You will not be charged anything extra for this. Please refer to my Privacy Policy Page for more details.
Ingredients
For the sponge
250g (1 & 1/8 cups) baking margarine / unsalted butter, softened
250g (1 ¼ cups) caster sugar
4 large egg
250g (2 cups) self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons of milk
For the decoration
150g (1 ¼ cups) raspberries / blueberries
300g (2 cups) (approx) icing sugar
A few drops of water
A few drops of pink food colouring
Sprinkles/Hundreds and thousands or dessicated coconut (optional)
How to make a Tottenham cake
Preheat your oven to 180C / 160C Fan / 350F and grease and line a 9×12 inch (30 x 22cm) deep sided baking tin with baking or parchment paper.
We find the easiest way of lining a baking tin is to cut a strip of baking paper the width of the tin, and then doing the same in the other direction. If you leave a bit overhanging the edge you’ll find it easier to remove the cake from the tin later.
Cream the butter and sugar together
Get your kids to measure out the butter/margarine and sugar and add them to a large mixing bowl or free-standing mixer.
If you’re using butter it needs to be soft so that it can mix in well with your sugar. If it’s not soft cut it into a few pieces and pop it in your microwave for 10 seconds or so (not long enough to melt it). If, on the other hand, you’re using a baking spread, you can add that straight into your mixing bowl.
Cream them together with the k-paddle of your mixer or a hand held mixer until they are light and fluffy.
Add the eggs
Get your kids to crack the eggs, one at a time, into a small bowl and add them to your mixing bowl, beating them well in before adding the next one. We never add our eggs straight in just in case any shell goes in. If/when it does, we simply fish it out with a larger piece of shell or a teaspoon. It sticks much beter to that, than it does your finger.
Add the flour and baking powder
Get your kids to measure out the flour and add that to your mixing bowl. Gently fold it in until it is well incorporated and no lumps of flour are hiding at the bottom of your bowl.
Add the vanilla and milk
Finally, get your kids add the vanilla extract and milk. You might need to hold the spoon while your kids pour in the vanilla/milk or vice versa.
Give it one final mix so everything is well incorporated.
Bake the Tottenham cake
Spoon or pour the cake batter into your prepared baking tin. Spread it out and level the top with a spatula or small palette knife.
Bake the cake in the oven for 35-45 minutes. It’s ready with it’s risen and turned a nice golden brown colour. If you want to double check, you can insert a cocktail stick, skewer or sharp knife into the middle and it should come out clean.
When it’s ready, remove it from the oven and leave it to cool in the tin.
Decorate the Tottenham cake
Add the raspberries/blueberries to small pan with a splash of water and heat them gently for 5 minutes. Once they’ve softened, mash them with a fork and then run them through a sieve, collecting the fruit juice in a small bowl.
Measure out the icing sugar and add it to your raspberry/blueberry juice. Mix it together until the icing is nice and smooth.
Add a drop or two of pink food colouring and mix it in.
If it’s too thick, add a spoon or two of water. You want the icing to be runny enough that you can spread it on the cake but not so runny that it will run straight off the edges.
Remove the cake from the tin and set it on a serving plate.
Spread the icing over the top of the traybake and get your kids to add the sprinkles/ dessicated coconut before it dries and sets.
Leave the icing to set, then cut into squares.
Serve and enjoy.
Tottenham cake
Equipment
- Digital scales
- Freestanding mixer
- Mixing bowl
- Measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- Baking tin
- Wire rack
Ingredients
For the sponge:
- 250 g (1 & ⅛ cups) baking margarine / unsalted butter, softened
- 250 g (1 ¼ cups) caster sugar
- 4 large egg
- 250 g (2 cups) self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons milk
For the decoration:
- 150 g (1 ¼ cups) raspberries / blueberries
- 300 g (2 cups) (approx) icing sugar
- A few drops of water
- A few drops of pink food colouring
- Sprinkles/Hundreds and thousands or dessicated coconut optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180C / 160C Fan / 350F and grease and line a 9x12 inch (30 x 22cm) deep sided baking tin with baking or parchment paper.
Cream the butter and sugar together
- Measure out the butter/margarine and sugar and add them to a large mixing bowl or free-standing mixer.Cream them together with the k-paddle of your mixer or a hand held mixer until they are light and fluffy.
Add the eggs
- Crack the eggs, one at a time, into a small bowl and add them to your mixing bowl, beating them well in before adding the next one.
Add the flour and baking powder
- Measure out the flour and add that to your mixing bowl. Gently fold it in until it is well incorporated and no lumps of flour are hiding at the bottom of your bowl.
Add the vanilla and milk
- Finally, add the vanilla extract and milk. Give it one final mix so everything is well incorporated.
Bake the Tottenham cake
- Spoon or pour the cake batter into your prepared baking tin. Spread it out and level the top with a spatula or small palette knife.
- Bake the cake in the oven for 35-45 minutes. It's ready with it's risen and turned a nice golden brown colour. If you want to double check, you can insert a cocktail stick, skewer or sharp knife into the middle and it should come out clean.When it's ready, remove it from the oven and leave it to cool in the tin.
Decorate the Tottenham cake
- Add the raspberries/blueberries to small pan with a splash of water and heat them gently for 5 minutes. Once they've softened, mash them with a fork and then run them through a sieve, collecting the fruit juice in a small bowl.Measure out the icing sugar and add it to your raspberry/blueberry juice. Mix it together until the icing is nice and smooth.If you like add a drop or two of pink food colouring and mix it in.If it's too thick, add a spoon or two of water. You want the icing to be runny enough that you can spread it on the cake but not so runny that it will run straight off the edges.
- Remove the cake from the tin and set it on a serving plate.
- Spread the icing over the top of the traybake and add the sprinkles/ dessicated coconut before it dries and sets.
- Leave the icing to set, then cut into squares, serve and enjoy.
Notes
Pin it for later
Similar recipes
If you liked this Tottenham cake recipe you’ll love our other traybakes and our favourite easy bakes for kids.
Hi there. I’d love to make this with my son (it looks delicious). However, in the list of ingredients it doesn’t specify milk, but it tells you to add it during the recipe. Can you tell me how much milk is needed please? Thank you so much 🙂
It’s 4 tablespoons. Sorry about that!