I’ve been meaning to try my hand at a Victoria Sandwich for quite some time now but all the comments about it being tricky and all the different secrets people shared for a perfect sponge kind of warded me off. Can you imagine reading this on a Wiki entry:
Although simple to make, Victoria sponge recipes are notoriously sensitive to cooking times and temperatures. As such, oven manufacturers often use a Victoria sponge recipe to test their ovens.
How scary is that?! What if I did everything right but my oven failed me, like with macarons? Having watched Calendar Girls sure didn’t help 😉
my mise en place
Anyways, one day I woke up and decided I would bake a Victoria Sandwich for tea with some friends. I flirted with some recipes and ended up choosing Jamie Oliver’s because Mary Berry’s called for extra raising agent and I wanted to make it the traditional way (but of course I wouldn’t beat it by hand!).
The only thing I was really careful about was having on hand all the ingredients measured and equipment prepared (the mise en place) before starting because, like any sponge, it doesn’t allow for much dawdling.
VICTORIA SANDWICH
(slightly adapted from Jamie Oliver’s)
INGREDIENTS
225g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
225g self-raising flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting
225g caster sugar
4 large eggs
FILLING
250g fresh strawberries
1 vanilla pod
150g good-quality strawberry jam
150ml double cream
1 tablespoon caster sugar
icing sugar, for dusting
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease the bottom and sides of two 20cm sandwich cake tins with butter. Line the base of each tin with greaseproof paper, then dust the sides lightly with flour.
Beat the butter and sugar together, until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating each one in well before you add the next. Fold in the flour gently with a metal spoon.
Divide the cake mix into the prepared tins and spread it out using a spatula. Bake in the hot oven for around 20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown and risen.
Allow the cakes to cool slightly in the tins, then carefully turn them out on to a rack to cool completely.
FILLING AND ASSEMBLING
Slice the strawberries. Gently warm the jam in a pan over low heat. Remove from the heat and stir in your sliced strawberries.
Add the cream to a bowl with the sugar and vanilla seeds, and whip until you have nice soft peaks*.
Pick the least attractive sponge to go on the bottom and place it on the centre of your serving platter or cake plate. If it’s a little rounded on top, simply trim and flatten it off by using a sharp knife and rotating the plate and sponge as you cut.
Smear over the jam and strawberries, then spread the sweetened cream over the top.
Place the second cake (pretty side up) on top and dust it with icing sugar.
NOTE: I used my Stabilised Whipped Cream instead.
And, as the Tea Time Treats Challenge this month is layer cakes, I’m submitting this post to Kate, of What Kate Baked (our host this month), and Karen, of Lavender and Lovage (co-host).
tea with erika 
The little ones are always a hit! Everybody loves miniatures. Hubby likes to pretend he’s a giant holding a normal sized cake 😀
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One of my favorite cakes! Love the little ones – a great idea for a dinner party….
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The small version is so cute and little 🙂 I love little small treats for an afternoon tea time 🙂
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I love to see those little beauties on the cake stand too!
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A Victoria Sandwich is a thing of beauty and yours is indeed beautiful! Thanks for linking it to tea time treats, Karen
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Thank you so much, Karen! Beauty lies in simplicity 🙂
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The sponges look beautiful and with Wimbledon here they are perfect. One of the fail safe ways to make a Victoria Sponge is to weigh the eggs in their shells and then use the same amount of fat, sugar and flour. Your cakes look so perfect you didn’t need this tip!
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Thanks so much, Maggie! This tip is great, specially when you want to change the cake size 🙂
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YUMMMM!!! glad i stumbled upon this post
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Thanks, Jen! Loved your recipes too!
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I missed out on a Victorian Tea this past weekend due to illness, but a friend of mine still went. After all the sandwiches and scones and fruit loaves, they served one of these! I reminded me of yours. Yours looks way nicer! 🙂
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Awwwn, thanks, Jenny! Hope you’re feeling better now 🙂
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I have to admit I have never heard of Victoria Sandwich, but it sounds so wonderful! Your sponge looks perfect! (And I know what you mean about scary-sounding recipes; I’ve psyched myself out of many!) I especially love the little mini- so cute!
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Thank you, Allie! 🙂 It goes by Victoria Sponge also. I might have left the mini ones a little too long in the oven though 😦
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That cake with it’s filling looks utterly delicious… but that little individual cake has my name all over it! Too cute!
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I’ll have to disappoint you, Lidia, and tell you that the big one was fluffier and a teensy bit moister 😉
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Big or small, these cakes look remarkably beautiful 😀
And delicious too!
I made a Victoria Sponge once, now I want to try your recipe!
Cheers
CCU
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Thanks, Uru! Modesty aside, they were delicious indeed 😉 I just didn’t use the lemon that Jamie’s recipe called for because the traditional recipe doesn’t include lemons.
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That looks so beautiful and moist too. I’d love a large slice of that!
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Thanks, Fiona! I’m dying to make it again but my to-bake list is so huge!
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The big and the small both look so pretty! Do you use a cookie cutter to make personal sized, or just smaller individual size pans?
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Thanks, Jenny! I simply used a muffin tin for the small ones.
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With muffin cups? I like them with the scalloped edges 🙂
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Yes! The ridged edges are due to the paper cups 🙂
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