Victoria sponge cake

Sometimes simplicity is what you crave. Victoria sponge is what to make if you want the ultimate in simplicity, yet still want something very special indeed. Personally, I always think of Victoria sponge as slightly mundane, boring even. I mean, who wants plain sponge when you could have chocolate? But that's the chocoholic in me speaking and as I have been known to be wrong, I thought I'd give this another go. I suppose it also reflects a slight lack of confidence on my part - with a plain sponge cake there is nowhere to hide if it goes wrong. Thankfully it didn't go wrong, in fact this may be the best sponge cake I've made.

The simplicity of the ingredients means that you have to go all out for the best. For me, that means proper butter (and remembering to get it out of the fridge in time to soften enough to make the cake) good vanilla extract, a generous slug of vanilla is called for here and really flavoursome jam for the middle of the cake. I used Bonne Maman raspberry.

I used Delia Smith's recipe for an all-in-one sponge cake. However, my butter wasn't quite soft enough so I creamed the butter and sugar together first and then added the flour and eggs along with 1tsp baking powder all at the same time. A slight cheat, but I didn't want to risk the mixture curdling - quite a lot of my mixtures seem to curdle slightly and the all in one method avoids this. So apologies cake purists, but my Victoria sponge turned out very well; it was moist and tasty and it was quickly snaffled up by my ever willing colleagues.

I used a three egg mix and divided it between two 8" sandwich tins, baking for 35 minutes at gas 3 1/2 but with hindsight I would have used a four egg mix, for a slightly deeper, more decadent cake.

Baked cake ready to be spread with yummy jam. I turned the bottom layer upside down to ensure that I had a flat surface for spreading the jam, and so the upper layer would sit evenly.

Generosity with the jam is called for here - it's a very quick cake to put together. I did mine in the morning before going into work.

Well, I think that says it all really doesn't it?!

I'm entering this cake into Sweet and Simple Bakes August Bake.