Victoria Sponge

Photo © Bob Jones

This is the workhorse of the cake world and perfect for introducing young children to the fun of baking. That was my introduction. Stood on a chair to reach the kitchen table top, covered from head to toe in flour, hands caked in … cake mix. There was always plenty of mix left to load onto your finger and enjoy raw!

Of course baking the cake is only half the fun. It’s what you do with it after that makes a difference. And of course, there’s a bowl to be licked clean after the mix is made.

Ingredients:

4oz Self Raising Flour
4oz Butter
4oz Caster Sugar
2 Eggs

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar together until you have a very creamy paste. Add one egg at a time and a little flour, adding the rest of the flour with the second egg.  Mix well.  Turn the mix into a 7 inch cake tin and bake in a moderate oven for 20 – 30 minutes.

Cool sponge.

Slice your cake horizontally to make two discs. Spread liberally with jam.  Reassemble the cake. Spread the top with jam too and then sprinkle some coconut on top. 

Or of course you can also spread icing over instead.. 

(If the sponge dips in the middle you’ve probably opened the oven door too quickly, but to be honest it doesn’t matter as you can simply add a bit more topping - Win win scenario. )

RJ