Coronation Victoria sponge cake

Victoria sponge, or Victoria sandwich as it’s more traditionally known, is about as quintessentially English as it gets. Visit any English country fair and it will be there, adorned with rosettes from the WI for the best one. So I could not think of anything more appropriate to make for my Coronation tea tomorrow than a classic Victoria sponge. Yes, the tele will be on, yes I’ll follow the whole thing. Because even though Charles is not our head of state (given that we’re a republic) absolutely nobody does pomp and pageantry quite like the British and we are members of the Commonwealth after all. So I’m going large with a proper English tea.

I looked at quite a few recipes – Nigella’s, Dehlia’s, Jamie’s. They’re all basically the same – they’re all really almost carbon copies of that of Britain’s doyenne of baking, Mary Berry. Mary’s recipe is an easy, all-in-one version. She just chucks the lot together and mixes. So I followed her instructions… and it was a disaster – very dense with hardly any rising and very chewy. Now Victoria sponges are meant to be heavier than most other sponge cakes, you want something to sink your teeth into, but this was hardly something that’s going to win a ribbon. So I tried again, using her measurements, but reverting to how grandma said a cake ought to be made – creaming together the sugar and butter first, slowly adding the eggs and finally gently folding in the sifted dry ingredients. It worked – crumbly, moist, dense but not too dense. Just perfect.

Traditionally a Victoria sponge is sandwiched together with jam, either strawberry or raspberry, and whipped cream. Then it gets dusted with castor sugar or, if you want to be more modern, icing sugar. But with this being a Coronation Victoria sponge I went all out OTT, with a large dollop of cream on top as well, plus fresh strawberries and blueberries – all the colours of the British flag. This cake is not one that enjoys standing around. It really is best on the day it’s made. So whip it up tomorrow morning, switch on the kettle and settle in for a fabulous royal spectacle.

All you need is…

225g castor sugar
225g unsalted butter, very soft as in warm room soft butter
4 jumbo-sized free range eggs
2 Tbsp milk (I added this as I found Mary’s batter too solid to spoon into a tin and smooth easily)
225g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt (Mary doesn’t add salt, but gran said any baking must always have salt!)
250ml cream
2 Tbsp icing sugar
strawberry jam,
fresh strawberries
fresh blueberries

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius on normal setting (170 degrees Celsius if you’re using thermo fan). Line the bottoms of two 20cm spring-form cake tins with circles of baking paper. Spray the rest of the tins with non-stick cooking spray or go the old-fashioned route and give it a liberal lick of butter.

Use an electric handheld mixer to cream together the castor sugar and butter until light and creamy. Whisk the eggs with the milk, then add it to the butter mix a bit at a time, whisking throughout – remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt. Use a large metal spoon to gently fold the flour into the mixture, you want as much air as possible. Do not over mix the batter, stop the minute it comes together.

Divide the batter evenly between the two tins and use the back of a spoon to smooth it out. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and cooked through. To test if it is done, insert a skewer. If it comes out clean, it’s done. (NB: Peer through the oven door first, if it doesn’t look golden and risen it’s still quite raw inside. Don’t open the door at this point – it will collapse!)

Allow cakes to cool in their tins for 5 minutes, then pop them out and onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Whisk together the cream and icing sugar until stiff, then sandwich together the cakes with jam and cream. Dollop more cream on top, go mad with the fresh fruit and tuck in.