By Irene Kappes
Victoria sandwich cake makes me think of a typical, romantic English summer, with blue skies, huge fluffy white clouds and a gentle breeze. Preferably the setting will be a garden full of golden rod and cornflowers, where afternoon tea will be poured from a china teapot into proper tea cups and the Victoria Sandwich will be presented on a nice old-fashioned cake dish/plate and served on dainty tea plates.
Or alternatively, it tastes just as good sitting on the sofa, looking out at the pouring rain, with a mug of PG in hand!
Ingredients
- 170g butter, well softened
- 170g caster sugar
- 170g self-raising flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 3 eggs
For filling
- Jam (I use home-made blackberry, as I prefer it, but raspberry is traditional for this cake)
- Butter cream – made with real, slightly salted butter, icing sugar, vanilla essence and a little milk,
Method
Mix all the ingredients together with an electric whisk/mixer. Spread between two 20cm round sandwich tins and bake at 170C for about 15-20 minutes. You may wish to increase the temperature a little, as my oven runs hot. It should be turning golden brown and should bounce back when pressed. Alternatively, insert a knife and if it comes out clean, it’s cooked. Turn onto a cake rack and allow to cool.
Make the butter cream by sieving icing sugar into a bowl, then adding softened butter and mixing with a fork. I judge the relative proportions by adding just enough butter to be able to mix them together into a stiff paste. Then I add a little vanilla essence and a little milk to soften it up a bit. It’s really a matter of taste. I like a nicely buttery cream that is not too light and fluffy.
Spread one of the cooled cakes with a decent amount of jam, followed by the butter cream. Place the other on top and sandwich together. Sieve a little icing sugar onto the top of the cake. And there you have it!
