Mini Honey Nut Victoria Sponge Cakes
Turning my apartment into a café: fall edition. Who needs apple picking when you can bring the orchard into your apartment?
Ryan Nordheimer•
October 31, 2025
I joked in my social media content that the only way I’m going to see fall colors this year is through dessert. I actually don’t think it’s a joke. Sadly, the three whole trees in my entire neighborhood just aren’t going to cut it.
My co-host Christine and I knew we had to do a fall apartment cafe of some form. It was a non-negotiable. I had the idea to try to organize all the baked goods from yellow to orange to red to brown to mimic the changing colors of the leaves (if there wasn’t a drought). I still think it’s a good idea; if someone wants to steal it from me go ahead. But it seemed a little bit too big of a logistical challenge / we have the humble goal of trying to limit the amount of food dye we’re eating.
We ended up going with the cuter name and theme of gourds & apple orchards, focusing the bakes on those two signature fall food items. Sadly, pecans, cranberries, concord grapes, and pears will have to wait for another Sunday.
I had a strong idea of what I was going to make for the apartment cafe. I wanted to make mini dome cakes (sort of like a princess cake), filled with a honey nut squash pastry cream, stewed apples, and pumpkin spiced layer cakes. I bought $30 of silicone round molds from a cake store in Chelsea, so I was fully committed. But after some thinking, I realized it wouldn’t work. If I tried to pop out the cakes from the molds, I had a fear the buttercream would crack and all the desserts would break. So I swapped out the cake style for somewhere between a from lucie mini cake and a victoria sponge.
This method worked a lot better and actually allows you to see all the layers of soft spiced cake with thick, rich buttercream. I bought some pink apples from Trader Joe’s and dehydrated them in my oven to make the perfect garnish. The cakes’ overall color was definitely beige. In no way did they come close to the color of a leaf. But I sort of like their soft neutral look, a cappuccino I would theoretically want to drink if I liked milk in my coffee. With my bake done, I then waited for everyone else to bring their goods.
This is what everyone else brought:
me: mini honeynut squash victoria sponge cakes
Christine: apple fritter focaccia, jamon & “brie” focaccia sandwiches
Erika: black sesame pumpkin cinnamon rolls
Deepika Kalla-Paul: pumpkin cheesecake cookies, apple bostock
CrustbyCarson: pumpkin sourdough loaf
@arlynosborne: red wine poached pear frangipane tarts
@dolcetta.baking: mini cheesecake cakes
Zack: butternut squash mac n’ cheese
Some interesting things to note about our menu.
Christine committed a major party foul by pairing her Spanish imported jamon with vegan(!!!) brie and goat cheese. Not like there’s anything wrong with vegan cheese. But it was sort of ironic to pair vegan cheese with very much real ham, of all things. It low-key still worked, and was delicious. I’m just wondering what it would taste like with real cheese LOL.
The best component of any dish in my opinion was Erika’s black sesame cream cheese icing for her pumpkin cinnamon rolls. Black sesame has such a strong resemblance in flavor to peanut butter that it’s hard to wrap your tastebuds around the fact that it’s just sesame making it taste that way. It’s like a slightly more nuanced, bitter, and fancier version of peanut butter. Anyway, on a cinnamon roll it was absolutely insane, and I can’t stop thinking about it.
Zack made a butternut squash mac n’ cheese that we didn’t put on the buffet because a) we ran out of room and b) didn’t ~quite~ fit the visual vibe. He was trying to shock us with the amount of butter in the mac, which I think he said was 5 tablespoons. All of us (a group of bakers) started laughing because that’s child’s play to us. So we considered this dish our salad of the afternoon, since it also had 1 lb. of squash (not even one whole butternut).
Happy fall and happy fall baking,
Ryan
Hey! My name is Ryan Nordheimer. Welcome to my cooking and baking site. I’m a 25-year old home cook living in the East Village in New York City. Hopefully you enjoy my food through my own, tried-and-true recipes.
Ingredients (27)
Ingredients (27)
Mini Honey Nut Victoria Sponge Cakes
Spice Cake Layers
French Buttercream
Honey Nut Squash Pastry Cream
Instructions
Mini Honey Nut Victoria Sponge Cakes
Place a piece of parchment paper over one of the cake layers. Flip it out onto a cutting board. Using a 3” round circle cutter, punch out 18 circles, getting them as close as possible to make sure you can get 18.
Remove the pastry cream from the fridge and mix with spatula to loosen it.
On small cardboard cake rounds, place one circle of cake. Add some buttercream to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2” round piping tip. Pipe a round of buttercream around the perimeter of the cake.
Use two spoons to dollop a tablespoon-sized amount of pastry cream into the center. Place another cake around on top and press down slightly to adhere.
If only doing two-tier cakes, decorate the top with some more buttercream and adorn with an apple slice. If doing three-tier cakes, repeat the layering process one more time.
Repeat process with the other cake layer. Since the edges are naked on the cakes, they should be stored in an air-tight container in the fridge.
Let thaw for 30 minutes before enjoying.
Spice Cake Layers
Preheat oven to 350 °F with a rack in the upper and lower thirds. Lightly grease only the bottom of 2 half sheet pans. Line each with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks (8), oil (⅔ cup), water (⅔ cup), vanilla (1 Tbsp), almond extract, 2 cups of the sugar, and 1 tsp of the kosher salt.
Then sprinkle over the baking powder (2 Tbsp) and all-purpose flour (2 ⅓ cups) and using a spatula mix together until 90% combined. Set aside.
In another large bowl, add the eggs whites (8) and the remaining kosher salt.
Using an electric hand mixer, start mixing the egg whites on medium-high speed. Once they are very foamy, start streaming in the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar.
Continue whisking until the egg whites hold soft peaks.
Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the cake batter until just combined. Then repeat with another 1/3, then the final third of egg whites.
Equally divide the cake batter into the 3 prepared quarter sheet pans (try your best to be equal). Smooth out with an offset spatula.
Bake the cakes with 2 pans in the lower rack and 1 in the upper rack for 15 minutes.
Then carefully switch the sheets and continue baking until the cakes are golden, feel firm when you press on their centers, and a toothpick comes out clean, another 5 minutes.
Let the cakes cool until warm. Then take a paring knife and run it around the perimeter of the pans to release the cake from the sides. Cakes can last covered with plastic at room temperature for 1-2 days.
French Buttercream
Add the egg yolks (3) and eggs (3 whole) to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, add the sugar (2 ½ cups) and water (¾ cup). Set over medium heat and stir with a spatula until the sugar dissolves.
Increase heat to high and let boil until the mixture reaches 250 °F on a cooking thermometer.
Set the stand mixer to medium-high speed. Carefully stream in the hot sugar into the mixing bowl so the sugar sort of dribbles down the side and into the whisking eggs.
Once all the sugar is added, let the mixer run for another 8-10 minutes on high speed, until the bowl feels room temperature.
Add the butter (4 ½ sticks), tablespoon by tablespoon, until completely used up.
Add the vanilla extract (1 Tbsp). If you like an extra smooth frosting, you can switch to the paddle attachment and beat the frosting for 1 minute.
The frosting can be kept at room temperature covered with plastic wrap for up to 2 days.
Honey Nut Squash Pastry Cream
In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar (⅓ cup) and cornstarch (¼ cup) to get rid of clumps.
Then whisk in the egg yolks (7), squash (¾ cup)squash, milk (2 cups), and salt (½ tsp).
Heat pot over medium-high heat, whisking constantly. Once mixture starts to thicken (it’ll happen quickly), turn heat down to low and continue to whisk for 1 minute.
Bring off heat and mix in butter (4 Tbsp). Dump onto a quarter-sheet tray or into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, transfer to fridge, and let cool completely.
Subscribe to get my new recipes delivered to your inbox
Comments
Sign in to comment
