Victoria Sponge Cake
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 2 hours
Servings: 8
Ingredients:
For the white chocolate cream:
70g white chocolate, finely chopped
2 oz ( around 1/3 cups) double cream, plus an extra 4 oz (1/2 cup) to finish
For the strawberry jam:
Around 2 cups (250g) hulled strawberries, roughly chopped
1/3 cup (70g) caster sugar
1½ tsp lemon juice
For the sponge:
4 large eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 tbsp vanilla bean paste ( or you can use scraped seeds of ½ vanilla pod and keep the pod for the strawberry jam)
finely grated zest of 1 lemon (1 tsp)
1/4 cup (60 g) unsalted butter
3.5 0z (100g) plain all purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup (150g) hulled strawberries, sliced 0.5cm thick
1 tsp icing sugar, for dusting
Instructions:
For the white chocolate cream:
Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside.
Put the cream in a small, heavy-based saucepan and place over a medium-low heat. Cook until it is just starting to simmer, then pour the hot cream over the chocolate.
Let it sit for 3 minutes, for the chocolate to soften, then stir gently until the chocolate is fully melted and combined.
Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour or until completely cold.
For the strawberries:
Place the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan along with the vanilla bean paste (or the empty vanilla pod) and mix well.
Bring to boil over a medium heat and cook for 4–5 minutes, stirring regularly, until the sugar has melted and the mixture has thickened. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
For the sponge:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of your springform tins with parchment paper.
Put enough water into a medium saucepan so that it rises about up the sides: you want the bowl from your electric mixer to be able to fit in the saucepan and sit over the water without actually touching it.
To make the sponge, place the eggs, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest in the bowl of an electric mixer and place the bowl on top of the saucepan of simmering water, making sure (again) that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water.
Whisk continuously by hand for about 5 minutes, until the mixture is frothy, creamy and warm.
Remove the bowl and place it on the electric mixer with the whisk attachment in place. Whisk on a high speed until the mixture has tripled in volume and is no longer warm.
While the mix is beating in the mixer, melt the butter and set aside to cool.
Combine the flour and salt in a bowl and sift it twice. When the egg mixture has tripled in volume and is no longer warm, sift half the flour (a third sift) directly over the mixture and gently fold it in with a large rubber spatula.
Sift the remaining flour over the mixture and fold in again. Now drizzle the cooled, melted butter down the sides of the bowl. Fold in gently and swiftly to incorporate.
Spoon the mixture into the pans – it should be filled two-thirds of the way up the sides – and bake for 25 minutes or until the cakes are a light golden brown.
Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 20 minutes, in the rings, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
When ready to assemble, place the white chocolate cream in the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment in place. Add the extra cream and whip on a medium-high speed for about 30 seconds until combined and thick. It can over-whip very quickly, so be careful.
Spread the cooked strawberries on the top side of one of the cake’s. Add half of the white chocolate cream on top, followed by the sliced strawberries, followed by the remaining white chocolate cream. Now place other half cake over. Dust some icing sugar and top with strawberries to finish!
Notes:
If you have made one large cake, take care when slicing it in half. you’ll need to support it underneath when lifting it back on top of the cream and strawberries.
