Victoria Sponge
The teatime cake by which every other teatime cake is judged. Two feather-light sponges, a scarlet layer of raspberry jam, a slick of softly whipped cream, and a snowfall of icing sugar.
Ingredients
225 g unsalted butter, softened
225 g caster sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
225 g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 g good raspberry jam
300 ml double cream
2 tbsp icing sugar, to dust
Method
- 1
Butter and line two 20 cm sandwich tins. Heat the oven to 180°C.
- 2
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy — really pale, like whipped cream. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour with each to prevent curdling.
- 3
Fold in the remaining flour, baking powder and vanilla with a light hand. Divide between the tins and level the tops.
- 4
Bake for 22–25 minutes until springy and pulling away from the sides. Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a rack.
- 5
When cool, spread one sponge with jam, top with softly whipped cream, sandwich with the second sponge and dust generously with icing sugar.
Cook's notes
Weigh the eggs in their shells and match the weight of butter, sugar and flour to them — this is the classic 'weighed against the eggs' method and never lets you down.