This one was named after Queen Victoria because she apparently loved a slice of sponge cake with her afternoon tea. Do you remember we told you that the Victorians invented afternoon tea?
Serves: 16-24 (Depends how big a slice you would like)
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 20-30 mins
Ingredients:
For the sponge:
340g (12oz) self-raising flour
340g (12oz) unsalted butter or margarine
340g (12oz) caster sugar
2 good heaped tsp baking power
6 eggs
Few drops of vanilla essence
For the filling:
4 heaped tbsp strawberry jam
55g (2oz) unsalted butter
170g (6oz) icing sugar
A few drops of vanilla essence
Handy Hint
Leave the cakes in the tins for at least 10 minutes before attempting to remove them. Also line your tins with baking paper for easy removal from the tins.
Method
- Put all of the main ingredients into a bowl and mix (I've never bothered adding anything separately or faffed about with sifting - far easier).
- Mix until smooth, then mix a bit longer than you usually would.
- Divide the mixture between 2 cake tins (the smaller the tins the deeper the cake) and bake in the oven until golden brown and springing back to the touch. I bake mine in a fan oven at 160C, this can take around 20-30 minutes but I find you get a much lighter sponge this way.
- While the cake is cooling mix together the 55g butter and the 170g icing sugar with a few drops of vanilla. Once the cake is cooled spread one half with the jam, the other with the butter-icing mix (don't spread the buttercream right to the edge as when the cake is sandwiched together it will spread to the edge anyway) and sandwich together.
- You can finish the cake however you like, either with a smattering of icing sugar for a traditional look, or drizzle with some icing and pop on some hundreds and thousands for a little twist.