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Victoria Sponge

There is debate over the ‘right’ way to decorate this British classic. Here it’s jam, cream and caster sugar, but you can also add fresh raspberries.

Preparation time: 30 plus cooling
Cooking time: 25 minutes

Serves: 8

Ingredients

240g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
240g golden caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 lemon, zest
240g plain flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
3-4 tbsp whole milk

For the filling:
200ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbsp icing sugar (to taste)
5 tbsp raspberry jam

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 ̊C, gas mark 4. Grease and line the bases of 2 x 20cm sandwich tins. Use electric beaters to cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each. Stir through the vanilla and lemon zest.
Gently fold the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt into the cake batter until evenly incorporated. Carefully mix in enough milk until the batter has a soft ‘dropping’ consistency. Divide between the tins and smooth the surface so that it fills the tin.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for a few minutes, then remove, peel off the parchment and cool on a wire rack.
For the filling, whip the cream, vanilla and icing sugar to soft peaks. Pick a sponge to use as your base and trim the top to flatten, if domed. Spread the surface with the raspberry jam and then the whipped cream. Place the other sponge on top, dust with a little caster sugar and serve.