Strawberry Victoria Sponge Cake

Home Sweet Home is all the sweeter with freshly baked Victorian sponge cake. Traditionally a teatime treat, it also makes a celebratory Saturday morning breakfast. If you catch the strawberries in season, all the better.

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Then grease and line 2 x 20cm springform tins.
2. To make a heavenly light sponge, use your stand alone mixer to cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs one by one before adding a dash of the vanilla extract. Fold in the flour with a spatula until you have a smooth mixture. And here’s a little trick: to make the mixture loose, simply add a splash of milk.
3. Divide the mixture into the two springform tins, and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake in the oven until it's nice and golden or for 20 minutes to be precise. When the sponge is cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before you take them out of the tins.
4. While the bases are cooling prepare the filling by whipping the double cream. To assemble the cake, spread some raspberry jam on one base before topping it up with cream. Then add the second base, sprinkle with icing sugar and top with some fresh strawberries. Et voilà, a summer masterpiece to send you off down memory lane.