”POSH ”Victoria Sponge Cake

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What better way to celebrate the excitement surrounding the Olympics happening in London than sinking my teeth into a perfectly delicious soft Victoria Sponge Cake!

It’s an easy recipe and the result left me feeling like so very happy!

I tried to read up online why it is called a ”Victoria” Sponge cake and the apt answer seems that since Queen Victoria loved this soft cake with her afternoon tea! So I am going to savour the cake and afternoon tea as I cheer myself hoarse in front of the telly whilst watching the Olympics 🙂

Lovely! So let’s get baking and when your done gobbling some of it, drop me a line and let me know how much you enjoyed creating this yummy delight!

This cake serves 8 people, takes about an hour to prepare.

I choose to call it ”POSH” because that’s Victoria Beckham’s pop name, our very own British star and this cake is modernised version of a British Classic recipe with a twist as it is layered with Creme Chantilly’ – very posh sounding indeed!

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Ingredients:

• 225 g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
• 4 medium-sized eggs, organic if you please
• 225 g caster sugar
• 225 g self-raising flour
• 4- 5 Large tablespoons of Strawberry Jam, the traditional version uses raspberry Jam, I used strawberry conserve.
• 250 gm fresh strawberries sliced lengthways
• Icing Sugar for dusting on top of the cake
• Soda Bicarbonate – 1 teaspoon
• Baking Powder 1 Teaspoon

To make the  crème Chantilly:

• 300 ml double cream – so sinful 😉
• 25 g icing sugar
• I tiny cap full of Vanilla essence, the original recipe inspired by The Good Food Channel advises to use – 1 vanilla pod, halved lengthways and seeds scraped or vanilla extract

METHOD :

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line two 18cm cake tins with a removable based with baking paper. I inaugurated my brand new weighing scales and cute cake tins I purchased for all future cake making experiments!
• Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and cream well until light and fluffy – this will take at least 10 minutes to get it properly aerated. Use the 10 minutes you have to wash and clean the strawberries and slice them lengthwise. This was also a first for me in terms of using my food processor to mix the butter and sugar mix. Then empty this butter sugar mix into a large mixing bowl, I also have a NEW nice bright Orange bowl!
• Break each egg and add one at a time, whisk the mixture well after each addition to ensure it is soft and fluffy.
• Add the self-raising flour to the above butter, sugar and egg mixtures, I added one spoon at a times and mixed it really well each time. Add the Bicarbonate of soda and Baking Powder to this mixture, I used this as I do in every cake but the original good food channel recipe does not mention these 2 ingredients. Later I used a hand blender to really get this mixture to feel like one entity and till it felt right to pour into the ready cake tins.
• Now pour the above cake mix in equal portions into the  2 cake tins and smooth the top with a plastic spoon, the type you get with a food processor.
• Bake for 20 minutes, with a timer, until risen and golden. Ensure you do not go over the 20 minutes, also if you are using a fan oven as I do, use only the setting that heats from below.

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For the crème Chantilly:

• Put the cream in the food processor, add the icing sugar and the vanilla essence. Whip to the soft peak stage, using the slow speed setting then refrigerate until slightly firmed.
• Take the strawberry jam into a small pan and warm gently whilst stirring, use low flame and do not leave on pan for tool long.
• Remove the cakes from the cake tin, on the top of one cake spread the jam from the pan and add the chopped strawberries.

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• Then get the Creme Chantilly’ from the fridge and spread generously over this.
• Place the second cake on this and press down ever so gently.
• Dust the top of this lovely sponge cake with a bit of icing sugar and decorate with a blob of the Creme Chantilly’ and some sliced strawberries!

Voila, the classic British cake with a twist – Posh Victoria Sponge is ready for you to savour, impress your family and friends and enjoy baking over and over again!

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