I’ve baked a lot of cake recipes in the last few years, and one I keep going back to is Mary Berry’s “classic” Victoria sponge.
It is simple, easy and tastes absolutely delicious, ready in no time at all.
However, I have recently started to slightly tweak it, and it tastes better than ever.
The recipe notes on BBC Good Food said: “Mary Berry’s easy Victoria sponge cake recipe is a baking classic and a tasty tea-time treat.”
For this recipe, you’ll need just seven ingredients and two 20cm sandwich tins.
Ingredients:
For the sponge:
Four free-range eggs
225g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
Two teaspoons of baking powder
225g butter at room temperature
To serve:
Strawberry or raspberry jam
Whipped double cream with added icing sugar
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C or 160C Fan before greasing and lining your tins.
To start, whip the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Next, add in the flour, eggs and baking powder until fully combined and no lumps remain.
Whilst you don’t want to overmix the batter, make sure all the ingredients are scraped down from the side and fully incorporated.
Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through, checking from 20 minutes onwards.
Leave them to slightly cool in the tin before turning them out onto a cooling rack and leaving them to cool.
Meanwhile, making the whipped cream filling, and this is where I have altered Mary’s recipe.
Whilst she says to just whip the cream and add it onto the sponge, I have found adding a couple tablespoons of icing sugar really ties the cake together.
It isn’t too sweet but it gives a delicious flavour which the cake definitely needed beforehand.
Whip until stiff peaks and all of the icing sugar has become incorporated before adding some jam onto the sponge in a thin layer.
Then add the cream to the sponge before topping it with the other sponge.
If you fancy, add the remaining cream onto the top of the cake or dust it with icing sugar.
This cake is absolutely amazing and always goes down a treat, and it is definitely the best sponge I’ve tried.
