See Victorian sponge in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "After Queen Victoria, who preferred this cake with her afternoon tea.",
"forms": [
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"name": "Cakes and pastries",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "2008 March 19, Thomas Sutcliffe, “Last Night's TV: Time to throw in the Victorian sponge”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Feb 2026:",
"text": "One hundred years ago, we were told in The Diets That Time Forgot, the average female waist was 10 inches smaller and the average man was two stones lighter. […] The Diets That Time Forgot preferred to advance the fatuous notion that our predecessors avoided widespread obesity because they had better weight-loss regimes, and to test out this notion they had persuaded nine contemporary fatties to adopt three historical health programmes: a Victorian version of the Atkins diet, […]",
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"ref": "2009 November 9, Adriaane Pielou, “The Boundary Hotel, London: five modern luxury hotels”, in The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Nov 2009:",
"text": "The deli’s fruit cake, six-inch Victorian sponge and 50p flapjack also inspire joy.",
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"ref": "2010 April 23, Jonathan Sale, “Love Bites: Marital Skirmishes In The Kitchen, By Christopher Hirst”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Dec 2014:",
"text": "Mr H talks us through their recipes, blow by blow. Not literally - though fisticuffs is obviously a temptation for Mrs H when working with him on a Victorian sponge, the keynote cake she had made for her Domestic Science O-level.",
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"ref": "2012 March 29, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, “Globe-trotting gastronomy: Sampling Zanzibar's culture melting pot of dishes”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2021:",
"text": "On the beach my very British daughter scoffed 'pek bateta[…], ending with jugu cake made with flour and unpeeled groundnuts, an exoticised Victorian sponge.",
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"ref": "2015 July 19, Sarah Baxter, “Summer holiday events: 28 fantastic days out to keep the kids entertained”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Jul 2015:",
"text": "Learn about the Victorians' ickiest dishes, discover Queen Victoria's favourite lunch and bake a proper Victorian sponge (without a soggy bottom).",
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"ref": "2015 August 2, Telegraph Food, “Easy all-in-one cake recipes”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2015:",
"text": "You'll be tucking into a nice slice of Victorian sponge before you know it - and with any luck, there won't be cake batter all over the kitchen.",
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"ref": "2016 February 6, Kathryn Hughes, “[‘Big books by blokes about battles’: Why is history still written mainly by men?] Kathryn Hughes”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Feb 2016:",
"text": "[…] I thought I’d used the cookery book writer [Isabella Beeton]’s iconic status as a way of understanding how a hugely expansionist Victorian Britain needed to lodge a particular reading of domesticity at its very heart. As far as everyone else is concerned I’d written a manual about how to make a Victorian sponge.",
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"ref": "2016 March 19, [Leah Hyslop?], “[From cake classes to sourdough school: Britain's best baking courses] Best for.... complete beginners”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Mar 2016:",
"text": "Choose between a cake course (in which you'll learn how to make brownies, gingerbread, and Victorian sponge) or the bread version, featuring a wide variety of loaves.",
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"ref": "2017 April 8, Emma Henderson, “The women proving male and female chefs are equal”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Apr 2017:",
"text": "Mary Berry’s Paris training plays second fiddle to her Victorian sponge",
"type": "quotation"
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],
"glosses": [
"Synonym of Victoria sponge."
],
"id": "en-Victorian_sponge-en-noun-fzKXNXB6",
"links": [
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"Victoria sponge",
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"related": [
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"word": "Victorian sponge cake"
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"word": "Victorian sponge"
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{
"etymology_text": "After Queen Victoria, who preferred this cake with her afternoon tea.",
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{
"ref": "2008 March 19, Thomas Sutcliffe, “Last Night's TV: Time to throw in the Victorian sponge”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Feb 2026:",
"text": "One hundred years ago, we were told in The Diets That Time Forgot, the average female waist was 10 inches smaller and the average man was two stones lighter. […] The Diets That Time Forgot preferred to advance the fatuous notion that our predecessors avoided widespread obesity because they had better weight-loss regimes, and to test out this notion they had persuaded nine contemporary fatties to adopt three historical health programmes: a Victorian version of the Atkins diet, […]",
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"ref": "2009 November 9, Adriaane Pielou, “The Boundary Hotel, London: five modern luxury hotels”, in The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Nov 2009:",
"text": "The deli’s fruit cake, six-inch Victorian sponge and 50p flapjack also inspire joy.",
"type": "quotation"
},
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[
148,
164
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"ref": "2010 April 23, Jonathan Sale, “Love Bites: Marital Skirmishes In The Kitchen, By Christopher Hirst”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Dec 2014:",
"text": "Mr H talks us through their recipes, blow by blow. Not literally - though fisticuffs is obviously a temptation for Mrs H when working with him on a Victorian sponge, the keynote cake she had made for her Domestic Science O-level.",
"type": "quotation"
},
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139,
155
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"ref": "2012 March 29, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, “Globe-trotting gastronomy: Sampling Zanzibar's culture melting pot of dishes”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2021:",
"text": "On the beach my very British daughter scoffed 'pek bateta[…], ending with jugu cake made with flour and unpeeled groundnuts, an exoticised Victorian sponge.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
104,
120
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"ref": "2015 July 19, Sarah Baxter, “Summer holiday events: 28 fantastic days out to keep the kids entertained”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Jul 2015:",
"text": "Learn about the Victorians' ickiest dishes, discover Queen Victoria's favourite lunch and bake a proper Victorian sponge (without a soggy bottom).",
"type": "quotation"
},
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"bold_text_offsets": [
[
39,
55
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"ref": "2015 August 2, Telegraph Food, “Easy all-in-one cake recipes”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2015:",
"text": "You'll be tucking into a nice slice of Victorian sponge before you know it - and with any luck, there won't be cake batter all over the kitchen.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
300,
316
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],
"ref": "2016 February 6, Kathryn Hughes, “[‘Big books by blokes about battles’: Why is history still written mainly by men?] Kathryn Hughes”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Feb 2016:",
"text": "[…] I thought I’d used the cookery book writer [Isabella Beeton]’s iconic status as a way of understanding how a hugely expansionist Victorian Britain needed to lodge a particular reading of domesticity at its very heart. As far as everyone else is concerned I’d written a manual about how to make a Victorian sponge.",
"type": "quotation"
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[
91,
107
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"ref": "2016 March 19, [Leah Hyslop?], “[From cake classes to sourdough school: Britain's best baking courses] Best for.... complete beginners”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Mar 2016:",
"text": "Choose between a cake course (in which you'll learn how to make brownies, gingerbread, and Victorian sponge) or the bread version, featuring a wide variety of loaves.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
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[
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71
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"ref": "2017 April 8, Emma Henderson, “The women proving male and female chefs are equal”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Apr 2017:",
"text": "Mary Berry’s Paris training plays second fiddle to her Victorian sponge",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Synonym of Victoria sponge."
],
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]
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Download raw JSONL data for Victorian sponge meaning in English (5.4kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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