Victoria Sandwich

Sometimes, on a lovely early summer's afternoon there is nothing better than a slice of homemade vanilla sandwich cake. So simple, yet in my view, far superior to a lot of other bakes - you know what you are going to get from a vanilla sandwich cake and they rarely disappoint! So when my partner in crime and I were invited to a friend's house this weekend to meet their latest family member, I had to look no further when deciding on something to take as a baked treat. For this bake I went all traditional and ditched my beloved kitchen aid and enjoyed some 'proper' baking without the aid of gadgets and gizmos to speed up the process. All you will need to this bake is a bowl, a wooden spoon, a cake tin and some good ol' elbow grease!

 

To make a Victoria Sponge you will need:

• 200g Unsalted Butter (softened)
• 200g Caster Sugar
• 4 Eggs
• 200g Self Raising Flour
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Essence

For the filling:

• 600ml Double Cream (whipped)
• 1/2 Jar of Strawberry Jam
• Icing Sugar to dust

Lets get started:

• Using a wooden spoon cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. The butter will change colour and will go a much paler yellow.

• Combine the eggs and vanilla together and gradually mix in to the butter and sugar. Be careful not to add too much at once as it will curdle. If this happens add a little bit of flour to stop it.
• Sift in the flour and fold, using a figure of 8 motion into the rest of the mixture. Keep going until it is fully combined however make sure you stop at soon as it is!
• Transfer the mixture into a lined cake tin - I used an 8 inch tin. It's up to you which size to use however be aware that the larger the tin to thinner your cake will end up being. If you want to us a bigger tin I would suggest increasing the quantities of mixture by 50g per extra egg.
• Bake your cake in the centre of a preheated oven (180c fan) for approximately 30 minutes, until golden brown and cooked all the way through.
• When cooked, allow to cool completely before using a sharp bread knife to cut your cake in half.

• Cover the bottom half with jam and then cover with whipped cream. I piped my cream for a fancy finish however you don't have to do this if you don't want to.

• Sandwich the two pieces together, dust with icing sugar.

Now all that is left to do is put the kettle on and enjoy!

And that's all there is too it - so simple and delicious.

Let me know how you get on! Happy Baking!

Rach x