Sourdough vanilla sponge cake with bunting for 8th GGG blogiversary

So this blog turns 8 today.  It is my tradition that E's birthday cake is always featured on my blogiversary.  His birthday was anticipated with great plans for eating sausage rolls at Luna Park with my family and a treacle tart on the day of his birthday.  Instead it was met with rotten weather and ill health.  Despite these challenges, we still managed to celebrate with good food and fun.

We had planned our trip to Luna Park a few weeks prior and crossed our fingers for good weather.  Melbourne's weather can be fickle.  On the day before we planned to go out, Sylvia was sick.  While we waited for the locum doctor to visit us at home (our first time - it was really useful), I baked sausage rolls and chocolate caramel slice to take with us. I was too hopeful.  Then next day it was pouring rain and we had a fluffy of facebook messages about contingency plans.

My brother booked us a table at the Beachcomber.  It was surprisingly busy.  Yet I can appreciate that everyone else wanted to be cosy inside rather than outside in the wind and rain (see above photo).  I had a great green smoothie, an average minestrone and shared some of the really lovely haloumi and pita breads.  Rather than eating dessert I saved myself for the chocolate caramel slice.

I had made the caramel slice with a blend of gluten free flours.  (Check out the post for my notes on the GF version.)  I worried I had overcooked it but the next day it was chewy and delicious.  I gave some to my family and we made our way through these and the sausage rolls at home.  Sausage rolls make great snacks and meals.  Even Sylvia loved them.  Mostly!

A few days later on E's birthday he came down with a cold.  Fortunately he was not off his food.  I was busy on that day but managed to bake the cake and make a chilli non carne (recipe to come) before I went out. I was making a sponge cake I had made a few times before.  E loves it.  This time I decided it was a good opportunity to use up some sourdough starter.  So I tweaked the recipe and it worked brilliantly.

My evening was even more time poor than I had expected as I took a friend of Sylvia's after school.  She was meant to come home for a playdate but we got waylaid in the supermarket and before I knew it, it was time for her to go home so - thanks to a communication breakdown - I took her home while her mum was knocking on the front door of our home.  While I chatted to her mum I said I wanted to make bunting to rig up over the cake with skewers.

Kerin is great with craft projects.  Before I knew it she had coloured string and washi tape and we were taping small strips of washi tape around the string and cutting it into triangles.  It is always more fun to do this sort of thing with a friend and I suspect I might have just run out of puff if I had been doing it myself at home, so I was most grateful for her help. 

Back at home I wanted to put smarties around the base of the cake but Sylvia was adamant that they would go around the top and as a flower in the middle.  Sometimes it is better to let kids develop ideas than to go with the original plan.

We had a delicious dinner.  The chilli non carne was delicious with tortillas and lots of extras.  The cake had lots of really soft buttercream because I just put some margarine in a bowl and mixed icing sugar in until I couldn't bear to add more sugar.  We sang happy birthday, E blew out the candles and Sylvia sliced up some wedges of cake.  Fresh sponge cake with soft buttercream is exactly what E loves and he was delighted.  The sourdough didn't make a huge effect on the flavour.  It was more for using up starter than affecting the taste. 

It is a small cake so it was gone within a day or two.  I wish it had been bigger and I could share a blogiversary  celebration slice with you and all the lovely readers who have supported my blog since it started in 2007.  I write a longer reflective post on the changes on my blog and my life annually at New Year's Eve so I wont dwell on these here.  But I will say that I am always amazed that another year of blogging has passed and I am still here.  Many thanks for continuing to visit, read and comment.  Meanwhile, life seems to get busier and busier.  Fortunately there is still lots of good food I am enjoying and want to share here. 

For instance, I had also planned to make a treacle tart as well but I ran out of time and had to postpone this for another day.  We weren't fussed.  Everyone was very full.  Though Sylvia and E ate their cake with the ice cream that I had bought for the tart.  However I have since made the treacle tart (before they ate all the ice cream) and will share it soon.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago: Creme Egg Chocolate Drizzle Cake for a blogiversary
Two year ago: Vegan Victoria Sponge Birthday Cake
Three years ago: Ghost cake, birthdays and wildlife
Four years ago: Guitar Birthday Cake
Five years ago: Viking cat cake with a butterscotch secret
Six years ago: Happy Birthday to E and GGGiraffe
Seven years ago: Green Gourmet Giraffe Birthday Cake
Eight years ago: A very vampire birthday

Sourdough vanilla sponge cake
Adapted from Green Gourmet Giraffe

125 plain flour
125g caster sugar
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
pinch turmeric (for colour)
125ml sourdough starter from fridge
5 tbsp soy milk
3 tbsp rice bran oil
3 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
buttercream or icing sugar for serving

Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease a 15cm round cake tin. (Or double ingredients for a 20cm round cake tin.) Mix dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and mix wet ingredients in a small mixing bowl. It should be thick creamy batter. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Serve dusted with icing sugar or spread with buttercream icing.

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