Victoria Sponge, a classic recipe that every food blog or website can't do without. So here's mine with a couple of tips.

Apologies for putting Victoria sponge in the title of this article, the sponge cake that I've made here isn't a true Victoria Sponge apparently because it doesn't have the jam and cream filling. It is really easy just to add it into the recipe, just whip some up and plop, or pipe if you'd like to be neat, it into the sponge sandwich. I'm sure that would do the job.

The reason I've gone to the trouble I writing about this sponge is not because it's difficult to make, or that no-one has done it before, it's because whilst dredging the depths of the internet I found a couple of tips that help the production of this cake and also can get you out of a little trouble too.

I honestly can't remember where I read this first tip, thanks to wherever it comes from it works well. Really well. The tip started with a statement “Eggs are different sizes”. You'd have to agree with this, it then went on to say that instead of weighing out set measurements of your flour, sugar and butter we should weigh them against the eggs. I use an old school set of scales so this is really easy to do, instead of putting your weights on one side you put the eggs. It's not problem to use modern digital scales, you'll just have to note down how much the eggs weigh first. Simple, now the ingredients are in proportion to the size of the eggs and therefore should always produce the same texture sponge! It also means you'll never need to remember quantities. Double win.

Tip 2 was explained on a couple of websites so I assumed it must work. I tested it, and seems to work okay for a get out of jail free card. If you've no self-raising flour left, but do have some plain flour you can make a quick mock-up self raising version. 1 teaspoon of baking powder per 4 ½ oz of plain flour. It's not a exact replica, but will do the job.

This recipe will make a two deck 'low-profile' 22cm diameter sponge cake. Takes about 15 minutes to prepare, and about 20-30 minutes to bake dependant on your oven.

Ingredients for the sponge cake

• 3 eggs
• self-raising flour to the weight of your eggs
• caster sugar to the weight of your eggs
• butter to the weight of your eggs (room temperature)
• jam
• cream – optional
• icing sugar for dusting - optional

How to make the sponge cake

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Beat together the sugar and the soft butter until they combine into a smooth creamy mixture.

Add one egg at a time, each time combining the mixture back to smooth (ish). Don't add them all at the same time or else you'll be there forever mixing it together.

When it's combined with the eggs sift in your self-raising flour (or your plain flour plus baking powder as described in the tip above). Fold in the flour, do not stir. Folding is done by gently bringing the mixture from underneath and putting it on top with a spatula, repeated until the flour is mixed in.

Divide into two cake moulds, which should be greased. I use silicone cake tins so I don't line them with baking paper. You may have to line them if you are using older style tins. Level out the mixture so that it is fairly smooth on the top.

Bake in to oven until the top begins to colour nicely and if you press gently in the centre it should spring back. You can of course check with a knife in the centre, it should come out clean. When baked leave to cool completely on wire racks in their tins before handling them.

Remove them from their tins, add the jam onto your base layer, and cream if you're doing cream. Pop the top layer on and dust with some icing sugar sifted through a sieve on top.

Pleasant.

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