Alan Coxon's Victoria Sponge

Ingredients

• 225g (8oz) unsalted butter or margarine

• 225g (8oz) castor sugar or vanilla sugar

• 4 large eggs

• 225g (8oz) self-raising flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 2 tablespoons of milk or water to add if necessary

For the filling:

• 425ml (3/4 pint) whipped cream

• Sugar

• Strawberry jam

You will also need: two 20cm (8 inch) sandwich tins

Method

• Before you do anything else, pre-heat the oven to 182 degrees C/360 degrees F/gas mark 4¼. Prepare two 20cm (8inch) sandwich tins by greasing them thoroughly and lining the base with non-stick parchment. Make sure that all the ingredients are at room temperature.

• Place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat it until it is pale and light.

• Add the sugar and continue beating until it’s light and fluffy.

• Break the eggs into a separate bowl and beat them lightly. Add the eggs a spoon at a time to the batter mix, beating in each addition thoroughly before adding the next.

• Sift the flour and baking powder together. Use a large metal spoon; fold in the sieved flour to the egg and butter mixture.

• The mix should now be ready.

• Divide the mixture equally between the two prepared tins. Tap the tins down gently to get rid of any large air pockets and level the cakes. Place into the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes.

• When ready, cool on a cooling wire rack and remove the baking parchment. When completely cool, prepare the filling with the strawberry jam and cream and sandwich the two sponges together.

• Dust the cake with rose petal scented icing sugar and decorate the cake with crystallised rose petals. The beauty about a simple cake like this is that you can decorate it any way you like.

Alan's tips

• If the mix is soft enough to drop easily off a spoon tapped gently at the side of the bowl it is ready to bake. If it is too dry add a little milk.

• Try using some vanilla sugar. Put a vanilla pod in some castor sugar about three weeks before using. The castor sugar will take in all that lovely flavour and give a nice flavour to your sponge. You can add other flavoured sugars instead of vanilla. Lemon sugar, cinnamon sugar, cardamom sugar, rose petal sugar is good examples.

• If your mixture curdles don’t worry. A little bit too much egg is in there fighting against the fat so stick a spoonful of flour in and mix it together. This should absorb all that excess liquid that’s separated it in the first place and that will bring it all together into a nice mixture.

• Be very careful not to open the oven or to bang it while the cakes are baking, as it won’t help your sponges at all.

• You know the sponges are cooked when they feel firm and springy in the centre. A good way of testing is to give it a gentle poke in the middle and if it springs back then it’s ready. The other one is to place a skewer or a knife into the centre and if it comes out clean then you know that it’s done.

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