Strawberry jam and vanilla sponge cake

This is a foolproof recipe for a perfect Victoria sponge cake and is based on the Perfect Cupcake recipe which I posted last year. It’s very easy to make and extremely quick. If you have a food processor I would encourage you to use it as the batter will be made and in the oven in ten minutes flat, and you will be left with a mostly-empty bowl smeared with delicious cake mix to lick round (this is a big plus in my books)!!

Ingredients

• 8oz caster sugar
• 8oz margarine (flora or supermarkets own brand)
• 8oz self raising flour
• 4 large eggs
• 2tsp good quality vanilla extract
• 4tbsp (or more if you like) strawberry jam for the filling
• 1tbsp icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C or gas mark 6. Grease and lightly flour two 8inch sandwich cake tins
2. In a large bowl or food processor, cream together the margarine and sugar until very pale.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Don’t worry if it starts to look sloppy or curdle slightly at this stage, the flour will sort everything out.
4. Fold in the flour and vanilla essence with a big spoon, using a figure of eight motion to incorporate lots of air.
5. When everything seems well combined and the mixture is smooth, pour the batter into the cake tins (an equal amount in each) and bake in the oven for 25-35 mins.
6. Check to see if the cakes are ready by sticking them with a knife, if it comes out clean turn the cakes out of their tins on to a wire cooling rack and leave until completely cool. If not, return to the oven for a little bit longer.
7. When cool, sandwich the two halves of the cake together using the jam and dust the top with the icing sugar. I find the best way to do this is by placing the icing sugar in a sieve and tapping it lightly as you move the sieve over the top of the cake. Et voila!