Birthday-party nostalgia, refined just enough for grown-up tables: feather-light vanilla sponge with a tender, even crumb, crowned with billows of marshmallow fluff that I torch to campfire gold. Children reach for them before the candles are out; adults ask for the recipe before coffee.
The whole thing uses two bowls and one pan, the sponge stays soft for three days, and the fluff — made with gelatine-free marshmallows melted into Swiss meringue — pipes like a dream even for first-timers.
Ingredients
- 190g plain flour, 1½ tsp baking powder and ¼ tsp fine salt
- 115g soft unsalted butter and 200g caster sugar
- 2 eggs, 120ml whole milk and 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 150g mini marshmallows (gelatine-free if you prefer)
- 2 egg whites and 100g caster sugar, for the fluff
- Freeze-dried raspberries, to crumble over the top
Method
Heat the oven to 175°C and line a 12-hole tin. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl — this is bowl one, done.
Beat the butter and sugar 3 minutes until very pale. Add the eggs one at a time, then the milk and vanilla. Fold in the dries in two additions — stop the moment no flour shows.
Divide between cases (an ice-cream scoop keeps them even) and bake 16–18 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in the tin, then fully on a rack.
For the fluff, whisk the egg whites and 100g sugar over simmering water until hot to the touch, then whip to glossy peaks. Melt in the mini marshmallows and whip again until thick and marshmallowy.
Pipe tall swirls onto each cake. Torch lightly until golden in patches — or 2 minutes under a fierce grill, watching like a hawk. Shower with raspberry dust.
Elena’s Tips
- Weigh the milk — cup measures of liquid are where cupcake recipes quietly fail.
- Bake the sponges a day ahead and keep them airtight; pipe the fluff on party day.
- No blowtorch? The grill works — but leave the oven door open and never walk away.
