Victoria sponge with Mercadona flour and baking powder

A Victoria sponge is often the first British bake people try in a Spanish kitchen, and the questions start at the flour shelf. Mercadona does not sell a bag labelled self-raising flour. The closest option is Hacendado baking mix with built-in raising agent, a 1 kg pack of wheat flour with sodium bicarbonate, marked as ideal for homemade sponge cakes. The other reliable method is plain flour plus a separate raising agent. The Spanish word levadura covers yeast as well as chemical raising agents, so the label wording matters.

Flour

Hacendado wheat flour in the 1 kg bag is the plain flour to buy. The Spanish label says harina de trigo, and the ingredients line lists wheat flour only. Leave the bag marked harina de fuerza for bread: the English product name is Bread Flour, and the card says it is ideal for homemade bread. If you use the baking mix with built-in raising agent instead, skip the separate impulsor and follow the pack for sponge cakes.

Raising agent

Levadura de panadería and levadura fresca are yeast for bread, so leave them on the shelf. For a sponge with plain flour you want a chemical raising agent, sold as impulsor or gasificante. Hacendado raising agent comes in a 90 g box of sachets, and its ingredients are disodium diphosphate, sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate with a little rice flour, the same type of mix as British baking powder. The box suggests half a sachet for 250 g of flour in sponge cakes, so 200 g of flour needs a little under half a sachet. The instructions also advise resting the batter for two or three minutes before it goes in the oven and keeping the oven door shut until the last few minutes.

Butter and sugar

Choose butter labelled sin sal añadida, which means unsalted. Hacendado unsalted butter is sold as a 250 g wrapped block and as a Hacendado unsalted butter tub of the same weight, and the block costs 40 cents less. It is also easier to cut and weigh. Leave it on the counter for about an hour so it creams smoothly with the sugar.

Hacendado white sugar, labelled azúcar blanco, goes into the batter. Beat it with the butter for four or five minutes until the mixture turns pale and fluffy. Hacendado icing sugar is the one marked azúcar glas, and a spoonful shaken through a sieve finishes the top.

Eggs and jam

A box of 12 large eggs, sold as huevos grandes L, gives you the four the recipe needs plus spares. Spain uses the same EU size scale as the UK, so an L egg weighs between 63 and 73 g in both countries. Take the eggs out of the fridge with the butter so the batter does not curdle when you beat them in.

Hacendado strawberry jam comes in a 400 g jar. The traditional Women’s Institute version of the cake has jam alone in the middle, which keeps the shopping short. Whipped cream or buttercream are popular additions if you want a taller filling.

Recipe for two 20 cm tins

• 200 g butter, 200 g white sugar, 200 g plain flour, 4 large eggs and a little under half a sachet of raising agent.
• Heat the oven to 180 °C, then grease and line two 20 cm tins.
• Beat butter and sugar until pale, then add the eggs one at a time.
• Sieve the flour and raising agent together over the bowl and fold in gently with a large spoon.
• Divide between the tins, rest for two minutes and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops spring back when pressed.
• Cool completely, spread one layer with jam, add the second layer and dust with icing sugar.

Shopping list

The quantities above use roughly €3.50 worth of ingredients when you buy plain flour and a separate raising agent, and butter is the biggest share. The table shows full pack prices, including the baking mix with built-in raising agent, with the price per kilo for the two butter formats.

Prices for October 2026

Product	Pack	Peninsula and Balearics	Canary Islands
Hacendado wheat flour	1 kg	€0.72	€0.70
Hacendado baking mix with raising agent	1 kg	€1.00	€1.00
Hacendado raising agent	90 g	€0.70	€0.70
Hacendado unsalted butter, block	250 g	€2.05 (€8.20/kg)	€2.20
Hacendado unsalted butter, tub	250 g	€2.45 (€9.80/kg)	€2.60
Hacendado white sugar	1 kg	€0.90	€1.15
Hacendado icing sugar	500 g	€2.60	€2.20
Large eggs	12	€3.05	€3.40
Hacendado strawberry jam	400 g	€1.45	€1.35

On the flour shelf, look for harina de trigo or the baking mix with impulsor incorporado. For butter, check sin sal añadida. For the raising agent, look for gasificante or impulsor rather than levadura de panadería.