Recipe: Victoria Sponge With Fresh Strawberries And Buttercream

One of my absolute favourite cakes is a good old Victoria Sponge cake. Sure it's basic but it's timeless and never fails to taste delicious. And this week just gone, I wanted to make something delicious yet quick for when my nan visited. So I cracked out the classic sponge recipe but changed out the jam filling for fresh strawberries alongside a sweet yet not overpowering vanilla buttercream.

Ingredients
For The Cake
- 200g Caster Sugar
- 200g Self Raising Flour
- 200g Stork/Margarine
- 4 Eggs
- 1 Tsp Of Vanilla Extract

For The Icing 
- 250g Butter
- 320g Icing Sugar
- 1 Tsp Of Vanilla Extract
- Fresh Strawberries

Method
1- Pre heat over to 180C. Line two 19cm cake tins with greaseproof paper.
2- Place the sugar and Stork into a bowl. Beat until creamy and pale in colour. This can be done with either a wooden spoon/spatula or a stand mixer. By hand requires more elbow work but creates a lighter cake that just melts in the mouth.
3- Add one egg and a spoonful of flour. Beat until fully combined.
4- Repeat with your remaining eggs, adding a spoonful flour after each egg. Beat until everything is completely incorporated. Make sure to scrape around the edges so that nothing is left sitting around the sides.
5- Fold in the rest of your flour and your vanilla extract. The key here is to fold the flour in. Sure it's tempting to beat it in quickly but it'll give you a flat, dense cake that is chewy and lacks that lightness you're looking for.
6- Divide the mixture between your two prepared tins and cook for 20-22 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. With a Victoria Sponge it's easy to tell when it's cooked as it'll bounce back quickly when you press gently onto it's top. Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
7- Now it's time to make your icing. Place your softened butter into a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.
8- Add half your icing sugar and beat until fully incorporated. It is usually advised to sieve your icing sugar but I am a bit of a lazy baker so I don't bother sieving. A good beat by hand or stand mixer will soon beat out any lumps in your icing sugar.
9- Beat in the remaining icing sugar. If you find that your buttercream is slightly too stiff to pipe, add a splash of milk and you'll have the perfect consistency to pipe onto your cake.
10- Take one of your cooled cakes and pipe half of your buttercream onto it. Using a palette knife, gently spread it until the cake is evenly covered. It doesn't matter if it's perfect, it's going to get eaten anyway.
11- Cut your strawberries in half and press gently into your buttercream. You can just put them around the edge to add some colour to your cake or you can place them all over like I did.
12- Layer your last cake on top of the newly decorated base. Take your remaining buttercream and pipe a fancy looking design along the top. I went with the simple droplet style on the top as I had plenty of buttercream left to cover it's entirety.
13- Now popping a strawberry on the top is optional but I feel it just finishes off the cake as a whole. Then all that's left for you to do is enjoy.