Victoria Sponge Cake
Apparently, as a child, Queen
Victoria wasn't allowed to
eat sweet things very often,
but during her reign the
practice of taking afternoon
tea was popularised and a
little sweet something to
sustain the Queen and her
guests in the late afternoon
became de rigueur.
Thus the Victoria Sponge
Cake was named, and it
makes a delicious addition
to afternoon tea.
4 eggs, at room temperature
225 g (2 sticks) softened unsalted
butter, plus extra for greasing
1 cup caster sugar
1¾ cups self-rising flour
2 tsp baking powder
4¼ cups double cream
About ⅔ cup strawberry jam
Confectioners' sugar,
for dusting
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Grease and line the base of
2 × 20 cm sandwich tins.
2. Crack the eggs into a large
mixing bowl. Add the butter,
sugar, flour and baking powder
and mix everything together
until well combined (the
easiest way to do this is with a
hand-held electric mixer or a
stand mixer, but you can use a
wooden spoon). As soon as
everything is blended together,
stop mixing. The batter should
easily fall off a spoon.
3. Divide the mixture evenly
between the tins and gently
smooth the surface of the
batter. Place the tins on the
middle shelf of the oven and
bake for 25 minutes. Don't
open the oven door during
the cooking time or the cakes
will sink. The cakes are done
when they are golden-brown
and coming away from the
edge of the tins and a knife
inserted into the middle of the
cakes comes out clean.
4. Remove from the oven and
set aside to cool in their tins
for 5 minutes before turning
the cakes out onto a wire rack.
Remove the lining paper.
5. Whisk the cream in a bowl
until it forms soft peaks.
6. When the cakes are
completely cool, spread
one cake with lots of thick,
delicious jam, then pipe (or
spread) the whipped cream
over the top. Sandwich the
cakes together and finish
by dusting the top of the
cake with a little
confectioners' sugar.
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