August 21, 2021
School Cake!
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A delicious and simple vanilla school cake with icing and sprinkles – the classic easy bake for everyone!
YES THAT IS RIGHT… THE RECIPE IS FINALLY HERE! School cake!! This, again is one of the most highly requested recipes to go on to my blog, and I thought it was about time… just in time for school starting again this year!
This cake is iconic – and one of the cakes that no matter how ‘plain’ it is – I will ALWAYS want to eat it. There is just something about it. It’s sweet, but delightful. If you haven’t heard of it… you must try school cake now!
Sponge
School cake, for those who don’t know… is a really very simple recipe. It’s a vanilla sponge cake, topped with water icing and sprinkles! It really is that simple. If you include the water as an ingredient for the icing, it is eight ingredients, but I don’t think thats too bad.
The cake is light and moist (if I can use that word…) with the vanilla flavour. You simply have to make a basic cake sponge! Theres something about the vanilla sponge and sprinkles together that tastes DELICIOUS however, if you wanted a chocolate version – follow this recipe here!
- Butter – for the sponge mix, you can use a block butter at room temperature, or a baking spread – both work well
- Sugar – I use caster sugar as it’s a basic cake mix, and you want the classic flavour from the sugar
- Eggs – the best method is to weigh the eggs in their shells. You want to get the weight to as close to 400g as possible, and then ideally match the sugar, flour and butter to match this weight for the best bake
- Flour – self raising flour is the best and classic. You can make your own by mixing in 2 level tsps of baking powder per 150g of plain flour, and mixing in before using
- Vanilla – this is optional, but I love the flavour it gives
Egg weighing method
So as mentioned above in the sponge section, weighing eggs is a useful method for cakes like this. I have listed 7-8 eggs, as eggs can vary in weight. I typically use medium eggs in the UK when baking, and these general range in size so they’re not always identical. I often buy mixed weight boxes as well so these can vary from 43-73g usually.
The best tip, is to weigh your eggs in the shells, to get as close to 400g as possible. Say the eggs weigh 411g, you then need to use 411g butter, sugar and self raising flour. The equal ratios create the perfect simple sponge that will bake wonderfully and it’s very hard to get wrong! The vanilla extract is optional, but I LOVE it!
Making the cake
To get the perfect bake, you really need to make sure you mix the ingredients properly. I use my stand mixer, but an electric hand mixer works, or even a bowl and spoon. Make sure if you use unsalted block butter that it’s at room temp, but baking spread can be fridge cold.
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamed, light and fluffy. It’s important to make sure you do this first in my eyes, compared to the all in one method, as it’ll make sure you don’t have any butter lumps. I then add in all the eggs, self raising flour and vanilla and mix again. If mixing with a bowl and spoon, you may want to add these a smidge slower so you don’t get in a complete mess, but otherwise mix until you see it’s combined and stop mixing.
Traybake tin and baking
I use a 9×13″ traybake tin to make this school cake, as I use it for all my traybake cakes. I love my chocolate traybake cake, my gin and tonic traybake cake and so on… but this one?! This school cake may be my favourite of all my traybake cakes.
If you aren’t sure on your oven, I always recommend using an oven thermometer so it bakes correctly! An oven I once had to use was 50ºc out! Absolutely awful for baking. After your oven is correctly heated, you want to bake the cake until a skewer comes out clean, and its not making a bubbling/crackling sound when you listen carefully.
If you cake sinks after coming out the oven, it needed longer baking. It really is that simple! It’s still going to be edible, so don’t be disheartened. Baking is all about learning the science behind it.
Decoration
Once the school cake is cooled, you can make the icing. It really is as simple as mixing water into the icing sugar, pouring it over the cake evenly, and sprinkling on some sprinkles! It’s as simple as it can get. I use these sprinkles as they are beautiful, bright and fun! They are 1000% bake stable and UK legal!
I use a basic icing sugar and water mixture for my icing, and it’s so simple. Add a little water at a time, and give it a really really good mix before adding more as you don’t want to make it too thin. Some people like to use milk in the icing, but this does mean the cake needs to be stored in the fridge as the milk is a fresh product, and this will dry the cake out, so water is best.
The most painful part is waiting for the icing to set a bit so it doesn’t pour everywhere – but it is worth it! This school cake is one of the best bakes ever, and I really hope you love it!
Tips & Tricks
- I use these sprinkles in my decoration
- I use this cake tin for my traybake tins
- This cake will last 3-4+ days at room temperature
- This can freeze for 3+ months
School Cake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 400 g unsalted butter
- 400 g caster sugar
- 7-8 medium eggs
- 400 g self raising flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Icing
- 500 g icing sugar
- 4-5 tbsp water
Sprinkles
- Rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan and line a 9x13" traybake tin with parchment paper.
- Beat together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs, self raising flour, and vanilla extract and beat again until combined well.
- Pour into the tin and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until baked through.
- Once baked, let the cake cool fully in the tin.
For the Icing
- Add the icing sugar to a medium sized bowl, and gradually add the water, mixing well each time, until a thick icing paste is made.
- Carefully spread the icing over the cake evenly.
Sprinkles
- Sprinkle over your favourite rainbow sprinkles!
- Leave the icing to set for about an hour, and enjoy.
Notes
- I recommend using a 9x13" traybake tin for this recipe.
- This cake will last for 3-4 days once made.
- For a 9" square tin - I would recommend a 5 egg/250g sugar/butter/flour mixture. Baked for 35 minutes!
- You can use any sprinkles you like, but I use these sprinkles!
ENJOY!
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J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.
Hia. Do we use boiling water or cold water for the icing? Thank you.
This School Cake recipe brings back such nostalgic memories, I love how you’ve recreated this classic, simple cake with its fluffy sponge and sweet icing topped with colorful sprinkles. The detailed instructions make it easy to follow, and I appreciate the tips for getting that perfect texture. This is the perfect treat for a trip down memory lane or to share with friends and family. Thank you for sharing this delightful recipe.
Hi Jane love your recipes and books! – would this cake hold having another layer added to it with butter cream in-between or am I asking for trouble and a collapse. Hoping to make two by doubling the ingredients and having a custard butter cream filling? Thanks in Advance.
That should be totally fine – it’ll be a super chunky cake but it will be fine with buttercream in the middle! Just make sure to chill the sponges slightly before moving about so that they are firmer x
Hiya, if the cake slightly sinks in the middle can you turn it upside down once cooled and ice the bottom of it instead
For sure!
this is a great classic recipe I have changed the vanilla to Lemon and lemon zest and used fresh lemon juice instead of water for the icing and this tasted great.
I made this cake with my Mum and the first time turned out so lovely, the last two times it burns on the side and soggy in the middle! We did nothing different, we were wondering if you could help. When it cooked fine it was absolutely gorgeous!
This sounds like there must be something different going on such as tin size change, or a different oven? The temperature of the oven sounds wrong if it’s burning but also raw xx
This was happening to me and I was using tesco stockwells flour. Switched flour and now works! Also would recommend stork instead of butter.
I’m making a number cake (13) for the first time. Would this recipe be suffice please?
Unsalted butter – Is this block of butter or can Stork be used? Thanks in advance xx
Either work!
Hi
I made this according to the recipe, 7 eggs and 400g of the other stuff but it turned out dense and not light and fluffy:(
How do I remake it better next time to make sure it comes out light please?
How did you mix it? Dense cakes if following the recipe is usually down to the mixing process x
This was happening to me and I was using tesco stockwells flour. Switched flour and now works! Also would recommend stork instead of butter.
Weigh the eggs as it says in the recipe I only needed 5 eggs.
Love this recipe – a beautiful classic sponge.
I used the calculator to adjust the ingredient list by half, to make a smaller cake for 6 people. The mixture turned out be rather too stiff but I corrected this by adding enough whole milk to turn it to a soft dropping consistency before I put in the the tin and it turned out beautifully. Also I used a 9 x 11″ tin, rather that 9 x 13″ and that seemed to be just right for the for the smaller cake size. I didn’t have any icing sugar so I made a butter icing with caster sugar, butter and milk and added chocolate and sugar sprinkles. However there are so many options for this recipe. I can see it being great as a cherry cake recipe for example, or used as it is for a sherry trifle. Or I might try it with crystallised ginger. or with a caramel icing.
I’ve added it to my special recipe notebook which holds all my tried, tested and loved recipes. I’ve already added Jane’s other traybake recipe for Gingerbread Traybake Cake, which is gorgeous.
Thank you Jane.
Could I make these as cupcakes? Xx
This was super easy to make, I decide to add lemon zest and juice instead of vanilla and it turned out great. The sponge is light and fluffy, and the icing has a great consistency. I’ll definitely be making again 😊
Hi can you freeze an old school cake with icing on it ?
I have frozen this lots of times. The sprinkles fade but still tastes great
Hiya, would this work well to turn it into a traybake birthday cake using buttercream as the topping? Or do you have any suggestions as to how to make this work?
Thanks 😊
Is this deep enough to cut in two and fill?
I would say yes, but it will be a delicate job – you’d need to chill the cake well so it doesn’t fall apart, and preferably use a cake leveller x
If I use plain flour how much baking powder would I need please?
Hiya! The general rule is 2 level tsps per 150g of plain flour, whisked in before using x
Hi, is it a misprint where it says it serves 12 people (same in the book). It’s enormous and I’ve noticed that some of your cakes with less flour etc serve 12 people, seems a bit inconsistent ?
Serving sizes are personal to everyone – it’s not a misprint, but you can cut smaller sizes if you fancy. x
Hi Jane!
Could you make half of this recipe and half of the chocolate school cake recipe and then put them together to make a marble tray bake?
For sure!!
Hi Jane, would it be possible to make this a lemon sponge and what would I need to add? Thank you!
Hiya! Lemon Extract should be fine, hope this helps! x
Hey. Was just wondering what the difference is between using unsalted butter and baking butter please. Would it matter if I switched it to baking butter instead please?
Hiya! No, that would be fine! Enjoy! x
Hi Jane I am going to be making this cake as a 2 layer cake made to look like a rugby pitch. How much buttercream do you think I would need to cover it? Thanks.
Can you do this for an 8 inch square tin like the brownie recipe ones? Would this effect quantities of ingredients,
Can I put them in the fridge as the icing sugar have not Hard after 1 hour at room temperature .So I put 4 hours in the fridge n still soft. How I fix it. Will theh get hard 12 hours in fridge as many said don’t put in fridge but room temperature.
Hiya! Water icing doesn’t really harden completely. Hope this helps x
Please could you give me suggestions of how to make a small batch of this! Ideally portions for 2-4.
Hi hun! Hw many large eggs could I use x
I made this the other day and it turned out perfectly, oh and was eaten with the same fervour as it took to bake. Love it and all your recipes.
I’m finally going to bake my first school cake 😁 Would it be okay to use a 9×12 inch tin or will I need to reduce the ingredients?
Also, is it okay to use any sprinkles? I know you’ve linked to some but I’m thinking to use cheaper ones if I can! 😂
Hi Kelly
The same ingredients should be fine for a tin which is sso close in size. And any sprinkles. 😊
How can I make this chocolate?
Hiya! take a look at my chocolate school cake recipe. Hope this helps! x
What does it mean if there is loads of bubbles om top whilst baking and when it comes out the oven it sinks? And then doesnt taste soft and fluffy?
Hiya! The bubbles will be due to overtaxing – the sinking could be the same and also taking out the oven too early, and both will change the texture! Hope this helps! x
Hey Jane.
I love this I’ve have made this and everyone loved it. I did have to half all the ingredient due to not having a big enough tin
I was just wondering where could I get a 9×13 tin form? Xxx
Hiya! The one I use is linked on the post, hope this helps! x
Hey I know this might sound a silly question but when you say weigh eggs do you mean in their shells . Love all your bakes ❤️
Yes that is correct! Thank you so much, enjoy! x
Love the old school cake inspiration!
Where do you get your rainbow sprinkles from as I can never find the bold colour sprinkles – it’s driving me mad!
Thank you ☺️
Thank you! They are linked in the post- enjoy! x
Hi Jane, to me this is a star recipe.
Although I am curious of why the light brown sugar (included in the old recipe) was replaced with white?
Thanks for being an inspiration
M
i used self raising flour as told to in the recipe but it seems to have risen quite a lot, whereas in the recipe pictures the cake looks nice and flat on the top. did i do something wrong or did you trim the top of the cake to be more flat?
Hiya! Try baking lower and slower, and leave the cake to cool upside down! Hope this helps! x
Hi Jane,
I made this recipe and it tasted amazing, however I wanted to know what weightings to use if I was to bake it in an 8inch square tin, as I could use a smaller portion size for home! x
Hi Jane,
Tried this recipe yesterday and it tastes amazing but I feel like the sponge isn’t as soft as it should be. Do you think this is purely down to over baking or could it be my mixing? I used a spatula and a bowl rather than a mixer? X
Hiya! This could just be down to over baking! Hope this helps! x
I’ve had a disaster with this. I used a 9 x 13 tin but it obviously wasn’t deep enough as a lot of the mixture ended up on the floor of the oven. Did I just not have a deep enough tin!!
Hi there
Could I make a chocolate sponge instead? Remove vanilla and replace with an ounce or 2 of cocoa powder? Maybe some chocolate chips.
Thank you
Hi!
Hope you are well 🙂
Hoping to make this tomorrow for my daughter’s 3rd birthday in a 9 inch round cake tin. What quantities would I need and how long should I cook it for in a fan oven?
Of note – I’m going to try and split the batter into 6 and colour them and then port into the tube one on top of the other. Do you think that will work?
Thanks so much – I REALLY APPRECIATE 🙂
Probably the best sponge Ive made., thanks Jane for a perfect school cake bake!
absolutely gorgeous, so light and fluffy was a massive hit 🙂
If I replace the eggs for aquafaba would it be 3 tablespoons per egg measurement? I will also be using dairy free margarine.
Hi can the school cake be frozen?
Loving the recipe 🙂
Yes absolutely you can freeze this for up to 3 months! Enjoy! x
Hi!
If I’m using 8×12 inch tin do I need to change quantities slightly or just bake it for a bit longer (and how much longer roughly?)
Thank you in advance!
Absolutely love this recipe. Such an old time fave in this house! So easy to make and fun for little ones adding all the sprinkles!!!
Hey Jane, what’s the best way to add the icing so it cuts neatly instead of running down the sides after being cut ?
Hiya! Try adding slightly less water to your icing so it is slightly thicker and therefore hopefully won’t run. Enjoy! x
Would the 9×12 tin work for this too with no adjustments?
Thank you
Made this with my little one this morning and we absolutely love it! so delicious- thanks for sharing the recipe!
Hi Jane,
Can you use large eggs in this recipe? If so would that change the weight of the other ingredients in the cake.
Thanks
Hiya! Yes, use 6-7 Large eggs, everything else will stay the same. Enjoy! x
Can this be frozen ok
Could I use a 10″ by 10″ tin without altering the ingredients? xx
Hello.
I am wanting to use this recipe to make a Spongebob Cake for my daughter’s birthday. Can I make two cakes and stack them, or will it be too big and fall apart?
Just made this but halved the recipe (because I didn’t check if I had enough ingredients! Woops!) And baked for 20 minutes and it is honestly the BEST sponge I have ever baked. So soft and spongey, will definitely make again!
Hi Jane, congrats on the book, my colleagues got it for me and I’ve already made a few bakes from it, all yummy! I’ve just made the school tray bake and decorating it in a Halloween theme for the grandchildren . My daughter made it a while back and said it’s the best cake ever so I thought I’d have a go too. Yes, it’s fab!
Could I put a food colouring into the mixture my grandchildren love this cake so was going to do a Halloween theme on top thanks
Yes you can! Just make sure to use good quality colours!
This sounds amazing. How can I make it gluten free please. Itll be my first attempt of a GF cake. Thank you
Love this recipe! Could I use dairy free butter and the same ingredients for a dairy free version?
Amazing cake! Only made half what the recipe said (as we didn’t need it so big ) and cooker for less time and it Turned out perfect!
Made this cake for my family , they said it’s the
Best evwr cake . I added a little butter to the
Icing , WOW made a difference soooò yummy
Hello! Love your recipes! I wash just wondering when we weigh eggs, is it better to be under or over the recommended amount. Because honestly, I can never get recommended amount, heheheh! Thank you 🙂
When you weigh the eggs, you want them to be as close to the recommended amount as possible. So say the mixture its 250g, and your eggs weigh 260g, use that. Then, match the other ingredients to the weight! Ideally its not too far away from the recommended weight (even if its a little less, or a little more) x
Should eggs be weighed in the shell? 😬
Yes they should!
Just made this cake for the second time in a week, safe to say everyone in my family loves it! Children currently lingering while the icing sets haha! Perfect for school lunchboxes x
Hi Jane,
I love all your recipes, thanks for sharing them with us. Once you have creamed together your butter and sugar and then added the rest of the ingredients, how long do you mix it for? I know the recipe says ‘well combined’ but I’m unsure what this means. I’m so worried about overmixing!
Hi Jane
Congratulations on the book!
If I wanted to make this a a loaf cake, do you think it would work?
Love your recipes! Xxx
Love this recipe. So simple and satisfying. Family winner with this. Made relatively large cuts and still got about 16 pieces put of my square cake tin. My son loved helping put the sprinkles on. Just love your recipes.
I always try to make sure mine is level before putting in the oven (tapping the tin and smoothing it over) but it always seems to come out higher one side! Any tips on how to fix this? It’s a bit of a pain when it comes to icing it.
Hi my mum made this when I was little I’ve continued to do this for my children and grandchildren. She made it as it was a quick cheap cake to make when money was short .
Looks like a great recipe! Is there a good way to stop the coloured sprinkles from leaking their colour through the icing?! Thanks!
hi i just got your book i have not had time to sit down and give it a good look have gave it a quick flick truth is your school cake in the book thank you for reading this email youes faithfully joan ryan [Mrs ]
Can this be frozen?
Can I ask why the school cake recipe asks for light soft brown sugar? I made this tray bake today, it is lovely but my sponge is definitely deeper in colour than the pictures you’ve shown no doubt because of the light brown sugar.
Oops sorry was meant to be caster haha!
Perfect as always! I made this today and took your advice and weighed the eggs, good thing really as it took 10 eggs xx
Can you provide dry measurements in cups for those of us without a kitchen scale?
I’m going to ask a no doubt stupid question 😬
If I set the oven to 160c fan should the thermometer read 180c or 160c?
The thermometer should read the temperature that the oven should be x
I have tried this with 9 inch tin and less ingredients but wasnt cooked in 35 minutes
Think it will be okay if I just sprinkle choc chips on top of I don’t want the icing sugar?
First time making this recipe, it’s absolutely amazing!!! Turned out perfectly, lovely light sponge 👌😋 Never have any issues with your recipes, always turn out sooo good!! XX
I’ve tried this recipe twice now and it isn’t cooking in the middle? Any tips on what I’m doing wrong?
I’d buy an oven thermometer and check its actually correct – sometimes oven temps can be out by a large amount which can affect cake mixes really badly! x
We did this today and used choc sprinkles as coukdnt find the normal ones. Still tastes lovely!
Hi Jane
Iv noticed you’ve used light brown soft sugar for this recipe – interesting! What difference does that make to the cake as opposed to Caster Sugar? X