Here's a classic Victoria sponge recipe, i recently baked. If i get married, this'll be the cake for me.
It's easy, prepared in 20 minutes and baked within 25 minutes.
Ingredients
- 4 large free range eggs
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 225g caster sugar
- 225g self raising flour
- 225g baking margarine (plus a little extra for greasing the cake tins)
- 55g butter (for buttercream filling)
- 110g icing sugar (for buttercream filling & a little extra for decorating)
- 1 cup strawberry jam (for filling)
- 1 cup fresh strawberries (for filling and decorating)
Step by step
1. Preheat the oven to 180c/Gas mark 4 and measure out/prepare your ingredients.
2. Grease two 8"/20cm round cake tins. To do this, tear a small piece of baking paper (or cheat and use your fingers) and use it to spread a little margarine on the bottom and inside of both tins.
3. Put the caster sugar and baking margarine in a mixing bowl. Mix together with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth texture. (Now prepare yourself for a little workout!)
4. Break in one egg and lightly cover with a large dessert spoon full of flour. Use a sieve to make sure there are no lumps.
5. Fold the egg and flour into the mixture and repeat this process with the three remaining eggs. When all the eggs are mixed in, add the remainder of the flour (again, sieved) and mix well.
6. Divide the cake mixture evenly between your two cake tins. The mixture will naturally rise more in the middle, so ensure there is slightly more mixture around the edges to help make the sponges even out. Don't worry about any lumps or bumps in the mixture, these will smooth out whilst baking in the oven.
7. Pop the cake mixtures in the oven and bake for around 25 minutes and watch the magic happen! A perfectly cooked sponge will feel springy to touch, not soggy in the middle. The edges of a well-baked sponge will slightly, begin to pull away from the edges of the tin.
8. Once baked, take the sponges out of the oven and leave them in their tins to cool for approximately 2 minutes. Then, take the sponges out of their tins and transfer to a cooling rack. (Remember to place the cakes the right way up, as the rack may mark the sponges)
9. For the buttercream filling, take your butter and place it in a mixing bowl with the sieved icing sugar. Add a dash of vanilla extract, cocoa powder or finely grate lemon zest. Mix together until light, fluffy and easily spreadable.
10. Spread the buttercream onto the under-side of one of your sponges. Make sure you spread it right up to the edges, this way, the filling will look deliciously full when the cake is whole.
11. Spread the jam on the other sponge and then add sliced fresh strawberries on top. Again, make sure the filling goes right up to the edges of the sponge.
12. Gently lift one sponge on top of the other, sprinkle/sieve some icing sugar on top, add a few strawberries and ta-da! You should now have a very pretty and yummy looking Victoria sponge cake.
