Victoria Sponge Cake

By now you’ll likely know that I love cake and I love a good Victoria sponge cake and I thought I’d share my recipe with you. As many of my followers will know I’m coeliac so I use gluten free ingredients, but you’ll be able to use normal ingredients here.

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 250g gluten free self raising flour
• 250g butter
• 5 eggs
• 250g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

For the buttercream:

• 100g butter
• 150g icing sugar (plus a little extra for dusting)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

 

Method:

Cake

1. Grease and Line two 8 inch sandwich tins with parchment.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C, Fan 160°C, 350°F, Gas 4.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together until it is light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs and continue to beat the mixture getting in as much air as possible.
5. Add the flour and baking powder and beat the mixture using the lowest setting on the beater or mixer.
6. Add the vanilla extract and continue to beat the mixture.
7. Divide the mixture between the prepared baking tins.
8. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the cakes are just brown and start to come away from the side of the tin.
9. Turn the cakes out onto a wire rack, peel off the paper and leave to cool.

Butter cream

1. Beat the butter until it is smooth.
2. Add the icing sugar bit by bit and beat until the mixture has first turned into something that resembles breadcrumbs and then back to looking like butter.
3. Add the vanilla extract and beat.
4. Spread the buttercream onto one cold sponge.
5. Place the second sponge on top.
6. Sieve the remaining icing sugar over the cake.

To finish, pop the cake in the fridge to chill and firm up the buttercream.

The cake will keep well for a few days if kept in the fridge or can be left out in an airtight container. In my opinion, the cake is best served with a nice cup of tea.

As you can see I have not included jam in my recipe as I’m not a fan, however you can add jam as a filling, spread the jam on the upturned other half of the sponge and then place it the right way up on the half that you put the buttercream on. Use about five tablespoons of your selected flavour of jam.

When mixing in the flour, ensure the mixer or beater is on the lowest setting, otherwise you may accidentally create a flour dust cloud. Likewise with the icing sugar, beat the sugar in slowly until completely combined otherwise you’ll have an icing sugar dust cloud on your hands and all over your kitchen. Although this recipe uses self rising flour, I still add baking powder as it helps the cake to rise really well. A big trick is to get as much air into the mixture as possible so in the stages before adding the flours beat the mixture using the highest setting on your beater or mixer.

I hope you enjoy making my version of a Victoria sandwich cake.