My Perfect Vanilla Victoria Sponge

My Perfect Vanilla Victoria Sponge

5 from 1 vote

A Victoria sponge is produced by creaming the ingredients together. Other sponges can be made by whisking up the ingredients or by making a smooth batter. The rise in this cake is provided by the incorporation of beaten eggs and the self-raising flour, I find the extra half a teaspoon of baking powder guarantees a perfect result every time. I love the flavour of vanilla in my sponge recipe and the vanilla infused sugar just adds that little extra.

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Prep Time 20

Cook Time 25

Servings: 12 Portions

Course: Cakes and Biscuits

Cuisine: English

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

4 fresh Free-range Eggs
200 gram soft unsalted Jersey Butter plus a little extra to grease the tins
200 gram Vanilla Caster Sugar
200 gram Self-Raising Flour
½ teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract*

Equipment

Two 8 inch ( 20 cm ) sandwich tins
Grease proof / baking paper

Method

Preheat your oven to 180C/ 350F/ Gas Mark 4 and prepare your sandwich tins by first rubbing a little butter around the inside of the tins until the sides and base are lightly coated. Line the sides and the bottom of the tin with baking paper.
Place a damp cloth onto your worktop to prevent your mixing bowl from slipping. Place a large mixing bowl on top of the cloth and add the butter and sugar. You are going to cream or beat the two ingredients together, the easiest way to do this is with an electric hand mixer, but you can use a wooden spoon.
When the butter and sugar are thoroughly mixed, sift the flour and baking powder together into a container and beat the eggs and vanilla extract in a second container.
Add a spoon of the sieved flour to your creamed butter mixture and about one-fifth of the beaten eggs. Beat in to thoroughly incorporate the egg, the flour will prevent the mixture from curdling or splitting. Repeat the process until all of the egg is completely mixed with the creamed butter and sugar.
Now change your whisk or wooden spoon for a metal serving spoon and fold in the remaining flour cutting through the mixture with the edge of the spoon in a figure of eight motion. The finished mixture should be of a soft ‘dropping’ consistency – it should fall off a spoon easily.
Divide the mixture evenly between the two prepared sandwich tins gently smoothing down the surface of the cakes. Tap the tins gently on the work surface to knock out any air bubbles and place the cakes on the center shelf of your oven for twenty minutes. DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO OPEN THE DOOR while the cakes are cooking. After twenty minutes you can check them, they may need another five minutes. A small skewer inserted in the center of the cake will come out free from any wet dough or crumbs.
The cakes are done when they’re golden-brown and coming away from the edge of the tins. Press them gently to check – they should be springy to the touch. Remove them from the oven and set aside to cool in their tins for five minutes. Then run a palette or rounded butter knife around the inside edge of the tin and carefully turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack.
Set aside to cool completely. To assemble the cake, place one cake upside down onto a plate and spread it with plenty of jam. If you want to, you can spread over whipped cream too. Top with the second cake, top-side up. Sprinkle over with icing sugar.