School Cake Sprinkle Sponge with Custard

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

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 tablespoon 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.

You Might Also Enjoy

• Easy Tiramisu Tres Leches Cake
• Old Fashioned Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding
• Moist Chocolate Courgette Loaf Cake
• Best Tunisian Orange Cake
• Moist Chocolate Chip Banana Bread with Brown Butter

School Cake Sprinkle Sponge with Custard

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

No reviews

This simple, nostalgic School Cake Sprinkle Sponge is the ultimate comfort food dessert, served with lashings of homemade vanilla custard.

• Author: Margie
• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 55 minutes
• Yield: Serves 9
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: British
• Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 100g butter, softened
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 100g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100g icing sugar
• 25g sprinkles

Custard:

• 200ml double cream
• 500ml whole milk
• 3 egg yolks

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease and line a square cake tin with baking paper.
2. 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.
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.
4. To decorate, mix the icing sugar with 1-2 tablespoon 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.
5. For the custard, add the cream and milk into a pan and gently heat to just below boiling point.
6. In a bowl, whisk the yolks, cornflour, sugar and vanilla.
7. Gradually pour the hot milk mixture onto the sugar mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the pan.
8. Heat gently, stirring with a wooden spoon until the custard is thickened.
9. Slice the cake into squares and serve with the custard.

Notes

At room temperature, leftover 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.