Once you have grasped the basics of cooking a Victoria sandwich cake it is a breeze to diversify and come up with a great deal of variety, in flavour and decoration, to suit any occasion, see the cake gallery for some of my adaptations.

Generally most recipes use a three egg mix however when you have a glut of eggs using 4 eggs is a great way of using up an extra egg and your cake will look really impressive. The extra height you get with a 4 egg mix means that it is easier to slice your sponges in half horizontally to make a multi layered sponge cake instead of a simple sandwich cake. At this point you are well on the way to a simple gateaux! Yummy.

Whilst I will give you the measurements for your ingredients in reality I weight my eggs and match the weight of my ingredients to this. After all baking is a chemistry lesson in action and getting the proportions right with your ingredients is quite important. With a Victoria sandwich the proportions are 1:1 by weight so as eggs come in different sizes it makes sense to weigh them. In this instance measurements are imperial as I remember them easier.

Link to measurement conversion chart

Ingredients

• 4 eggs at room temperature
• 8oz Self raising or sponge flour
• 8oz caster sugar
• 8oz butter at room temperature
• A dash of vanilla essence
• Strawberry jam
• Optional - whipped cream or vanilla buttercream

You will also need

• a mixing bowl
• a hand or electric whisk
• 2 x 8 inch, or 20cm, sandwich tins

Method

This is an all in one method, it is quick and easy.

1. Pre heat your oven to 180c, grease and line 2 x 8 inch, or 20cm, sandwich tins
2. Put all the ingredients except the jam in a large mixing bowl and using an electric mixer beat them together until combined, they should look pale yellow and fluffy, takes about 3 mins
3. Divide the mixture between the 2 tins
4. Bake in the oven for 20 – 25 mins. Let your nose be your guide, when the litchen smells nicely of cooked cake the cake is cooked!
5. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins for a couple of mins.
6. Turn the sponges onto a wire cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
7. Sandwich the two cakes together with a good helping of strawberry jam and sprinkle the top with a dusting of icing sugar. Sandwich cream or buttercream as well as jam if you like but a real classic Victoria sandwich has only jam.
8. Share with a good friend and a cup of tea.

Hints and tips

• Do not open the oven until the cake smells cooked. Once you start to smell cooked cake open the door slightly and check that the top of the cakes look evenly brown, press the top and they should spring back. If they look pale don’t touch them, shut the oven and give them a couple more mins.
• If you open the oven too early you risk the cake slumping in the middle. You cannot recover the cake once this happens. However on the bright side you can still eat it. Fill the dip with whipped cream and fresh fruit then serve as a dessert. The great thing is you will have 2 desserts!
• If the cake over cooks, but is not burnt, make up some butter cream and cover the outside to disguise the colour.
• Chickens love burnt cake!
• For a lighter sponge you need to revert to mixing the ingredients together in the traditional way. I am happy with the quick route.
• Sponges freeze well if unfilled. Wrap them in cling film and put them in a freezer bag. When needed defrost and fill, takes about 20 mins
• I think a sandwich cake has a better texture the next day, the boys just like cake!
• Store in an airtight container and the cake should keep well for up to a week.
• You need 2oz of ingredient per egg, so if you want a 2 egg cake reduce accordingly.
• For a 2 egg cake use 7 inch tins, for a 3 or 4 egg cake use 8 inch tins. If you want to venture into larger sponges increase the tin size by an inch every 2 eggs. The larges I have seen is a 16 egg cake and it was enormous.

Alternatives

For a different flavoured sponge cake omit the vanilla essence and substitute

• 1 oz cocoa powder, mixed with a little warn water, for 1oz of flour and add 1/4 tsp of baking powder for a chocolate sponge
• 2tblsp coffee essence or expresso for a coffee sponge
• 1 oz cocoa powder, mixed with a little warn water, for 1oz of flour, add 1/4 tsp of baking powder and 1tblsp of coffee essence or expresso for a mocca sponge
• grated zest and the juice of a lemon for a lemon sponge
• grated zest and the juice of an orange for an orange sponge
• 1oz of ground almonds and a tsp or almond essence for an almond sponge
• 1 mashed banana for a banana sponge - goes well with whipped cream and melted toffee's drizzled over

Fillings and toppings

• Flavoured butter cream or meringue butter cream
• water icing flavoured with fruit juice,
• fruit curds and other flavoured jams,
• Whipped cream or Chantilly cream
• Fresh fruit, nuts, bonbons and any number of a huge range of commercially available cake decorations.

Be inventive

Take inspiration from The Cake Gallery below. Check back regularly as I add more pictures as I make more cakes. The decoration and flavour might change but the basic cake recipe doesn't.

Acknowledgements

I made my first Victoria sandwich at school and had no hand mixer, I had to beat the thing with a wooden spoon, adding the eggs and a little at a time then folding in the flour. It’s the only time I have done it that way and my arm aches thinking about it. However I do occasionally follow the old fashioned method using a hand mixer if I feel like it. It doesn’t take that much longer and you do get a lighter sponge. However these days it only really happens if I am putting a cake in the show. Before I learnt the recipe by heart my usual point of reference was the Dairy Cook Book, a tatty, well read book that I still refer to on a regular basis. Thanks to Clare for buying it for me all those years ago.

If you have found this section helpful and want to give us feedback or show us some photo’s of your own cakes we would love to hear from you. Why not put a photo on our facebook page.

Happy cake making!

The Cake Gallery