Victoria Sponge Cake

Step 1

Pre-heat your oven to 160C Fan/180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, and grease and line two 8" cake tins (that are at least 2" deep). I line the base with greaseproof paper and lightly grease the sides with butter

Step 2

Make the sponge by mixing the butter/baking spread and caster sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer, or in a stand mixer, for 3-4 minutes until fluffy. You can also mix by hand, but an electric mixer will give the best results

Step 3

Add the eggs and vanilla extract, and whisk until fully incorporated, again using an electric mixer

Step 4

Gently whisk in the self raising flour using a hand whisk, or fold in with a silicone spatula, and mix in until you can't see any flour anymore

Step 5

Divide the mixture between the tins, use scales for accuracy if you like

Step 6

Bake them for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave them to fully cool either in the tins or remove from the tin and place on cooling racks

Step 7

If the cakes have domed on top, you can level them off with a cake leveller or a knife, you will definitely need to do this for the bottom cake layer so that the top layer stacks on top of it nicely

Step 8

To decorate the cake, prepare the double cream by whipping it along with the icing sugar and vanilla extract, with an electric whisk until soft peaks form. You can do this by hand but it will take much longer and require some muscles!

Step 9

Put one of the sponges on your plate or cake stand and spread the jam onto it

Step 10

Pipe or spread the whipped cream over the jam (or you can pipe or spread the cream on first and put the jam on top of it)

Step 11

Add the other sponge on top and dust with icing sugar, or decorate how you like

Step 12

Serve immediately, if using whipped cream store any leftovers in the fridge, if using jam only or jam and buttercream store in an airtight container in a cool place and eat within 2-3 days