Heather’s Jellycat Victoria Sponge Cake

iskibakehouse
Nov 6
3 min read

This cake was for my college roommate of four years, Heather.

Pastel-decorated Victoria sponge cake with Jellycat-inspired face and frosting feet. a jelly cat decorated cake with strawberries, a victorian sponge cake homemade — a very tasty Victorian sponge cake with strawberry jam, chocolate feet, and a silly smile

In our freshman year of college, I bought her a Wegmans cake.

I wasn’t baking in a dorm back then. But what I remember most was the picnic we threw for her. Pennsylvania finally warmed up that early May, and we spread out a blanket by the lake, sundresses on and baskets full of food.

polaroid of two college girls with a birthday cake smiling holding it outside at a picnic, polaroid vintage photography — Heather's Birthday freshman year of college, featuring the red velvet cake and picnic

We pooled money to buy her a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. It was boxed and store-bought, sure, but the picnic was abundant and joyful — one of those early college days where everything felt soft and sun-drenched.

Heather and I were big food people

A huge part of our friendship lived in that shared hunger for new flavors. She was always willing to try something at least once. Never picky. Her curiosity extended to food and places and people. She wasn’t afraid of change, even if she did eat the same breakfast every day and made the same smoothie most mornings. That balance — adventurous but ritualistic — was something I came to admire.

Sophomore year, our other roommate, Andrea, made a tres leches cake for her birthday. Junior year, I was abroad in Japan — no cake was baked or made that time. But finally, senior year, I was able to bake Heather a birthday cake myself.

young woman putting candles on her birthday cake, a jelly cat decorated cake with strawberries, a victorian sponge cake homemade

Baking Daily During College

Coincidentally, it was also during a time I was baking more than ever. That tiny college apartment kitchen is a place I reflect on fondly. A closed-in space with a built-in pantry beside the oven, sandwiched between the fridge and the pantry wall. Seasonings and flours and syrups would spill out of jars we’d collected over the years, stacked and shuffled on every available shelf. That kitchen held countless meals, including my first sourdough loaves. It also held this cake — the first I ever made for Heather.

two best friends dressed up for halloween in college, snoppy and Barbie — halloween as snoppy and barbie

Half the reason I baked it was to thank her for being my personal alarm clock for four years, and the other half was that I knew it would be the last birthday I’d spend in person with her — until who knows when. She lived about 40 minutes outside of Chicago. I was about to move back to Virginia, 30 minutes down by the beach.

Tackling a Whimsical Cake

With a bit more experience under my belt — I had baked five cakes that year alone — I tackled a whimsical creation. Heather adored Jellycat plushies — the soft, floppy stuffed animals — and she was ahead of me on that bandwagon. One day she showed me a picture of a Jellycat-inspired cake going around the internet: soft pink frosting, a round face, stubby feet. Cute. Slightly haunting. But cute. And overpriced, like most things with eyes.

I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to replicate — so why not?

The Cake: Heather's Jellycat Victorian Sponge Cake

heirloom tomato salad with olive oil, basil, salt and pepper, homemade guac, tortilla chips, a bowl of fresh cut fruit, and cute decor on a dinner table for a dinner birthday party — 'Tomato mans' heirloom tomatos

The base was a Victoria sponge with sourdough discard folded in, which gave it a denser crumb than usual. I made a homemade strawberry compote — thicker, more like jam — and sandwiched it between the golden layers. The whipped cream cheese frosting saved the texture.

The cake, in all honesty, was kind of sloppy. The kind of cute that borders on unsettling. But the taste made up for it immensely.

Heather and I celebrated with dinner — something simple I cooked — and a lobster roll kit her mom mailed us. For the salad, I went to the local farmers' market and bought heirlooms from a couple I always visited. The man I secretly called Tomato Man (he never knew). If you want to know about that, well… that’s a story for another time.

young woman with her birthday cake, a jelly cat decorated cake with strawberries, a victorian sponge cake homemade — birthday girl

We took the cake to a winery and spent the afternoon picnicking in sundresses, sipping wine, and eating grocery-store sushi and charcuterie on a blanket with friends she invited. I remember holding the cake in my lap in the car, the sun pouring in through the windows, balancing it carefully as if it were glassware. Slicing into it released the scent of strawberries and vanilla. The layers held. The frosting stayed.

Summer Break and Goodbye

Heather’s birthday always fell on finals week, right at that edge of exhaustion and beginning. When I think of her birthday, it reminds me of the day before summer break — that suspended feeling of excitement mixed with a soft sadness that you didn’t get to slow down, to savor it all.