Victoria cream sponge

The company that I work for is celebrating it's anniversary this year, to mark the occasion a buffet was laid on and there was a huge cake to share. Just in case we hadn't had enough cake already they also sent us home with a 'cake making kit', in it were all the ingredients (except the eggs) for making a Victoria sponge, flour, butter, sugar and jam.

It's hard to improve on a classic like a Victoria sponge but by adding whipped cream I found a way. Of course cream is entirely optional but it is highly recommended, your cake won't keep as long but in my house at least, that's not a problem...I use the traditional method for making sponge cakes, first I weigh all of the eggs in their shells, I then use an equal weight of butter, sugar and self raising flour. For example if I use three eggs that weigh 50g each then I'll use 150g of butter, sugar and flour.

Maths lesson over it's time for the recipe...

Victoria sponge recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 Large eggs
• Butter
• Sugar (I used golden caster sugar)
  
• Self raising flour
• Vanilla extract (homemade if you have it)
• Jam and whipped cream for the filling
  

Method:

• Preheat your oven to gas 4/180c/350f and grease two 7 inch sponge tins.
• First weigh all three eggs together in their shells, make a note of how much they weigh.
• Whatever the eggs weigh add the same weight in butter and sugar to a large mixing bowl and beat well together until light and fluffy, this will take a few minutes.
• Next beat in the eggs followed by an equal weight again of self raising flour, add a few drops of vanilla and mix well together.
• Divide the mixture equally between the two sponge tins and bake for around 25 minutes. Check they're cooked by inserting a skewer into the cake, if it comes out clean they're done.
• Cool the cakes on a rack, once they have cooled fill with jam and whipped cream and enjoy!