Raspberry and cream Victoria sponge

 

This was rather a last minute concoction.  I had planned on making raspberry ripple pavlovas and dutifully made my meringues last night and left them to cool in the oven.  Last night they looked amazing.  This morning, the raspberry swirl had turned to mush and I wasn’t so much left with mini pavlovas as pink swamp things!  At least it happened before I wasted any of the expensive ingredients...so what’s a girl to do when she has a basic store cupboard at her disposal and lots of raspberries and cream?

Glammed-up Victoria sponge was, of course, the answer!  I cut the sponge into four tiers and layered it with whipped cream and fresh raspberries.  And I might be being presumptuous but I suspect everyone enjoyed it more than they would have enjoyed the pavlovas (in truth, they were a selfish bake...my eatership isn’t really into fancy meringues!)

When I’ve made multi-tiered sponges in the past I find they can get a bit wobbly on the upper layers.  So I deployed my adjustable dessert ring to hold everything in place – it does give more precise sides and structure.

Having cut the sponge into four layers I then found I couldn’t use the fourth layer as it would have made the sponge too tall...and that’s me saying that.  I think when you come up to the top of the deep dessert ring it’s a good sign that you should stop.  It wouldn’t have fit on a small plate if I’d pushed on with the fourth tier...and cake served on dinner plates seems a bit much!  I will possibly use the spare disc of sponge for little trifles but, if my spidey-senses are correct, I suspect Mr CC will just polish it off with a cup of tea.

Ingredients

For the sponge:
4 eggs, at room temperature
Unsalted butter, at room temperature
Caster sugar
Self-raising flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
A little milk, if necessary

For the filling:
400g raspberries, washed and dried
600ml double cream

To assemble the cake:
Icing sugar or caster sugar, for dusting

Method

Preheat the oven to 180˚C/fan oven 160˚C/350˚F/gas mark 4.

Line two 20cm sandwich cake tins with baking paper; I put a disc of paper in the bottom and a strip around the side that comes up above the height of the tin.

Weigh the eggs in their shells – this will tell you the weight for the butter, sugar and flour. Mine weighed 263 grams.

Whatever the weight of your eggs (in their shells) weigh out the same amount of butter, sugar and flour.

Beat the butter until it is light and whippy, then beat in the sugar until light and fluffy. Don’t skimp on this stage as it’s the key way of getting air into your sponge.

Beat in the eggs one at a time; if you whipped the butter and sugar enough there shouldn’t be any curdling, but if there is add some of the flour to correct it.

Beat in the vanilla extract.

Fold in the flour.

If the batter is thick and won’t easily drop from the mixing spoon, fold in a tablespoon of milk. It may need a further tablespoon. Add enough milk to reach “dropping consistency”.

Spoon the batter into the prepared sandwich tins and gently smooth the tops with a knife.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the sponge comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for a couple of minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

When the sponges are cool cut each one through horizontally so that you have four discs of sponge.

Whip the cream until it holds firm peaks – somewhere between soft and stiff!  Don’t overbeat it.

Now you can build the cake: place a disc of sponge onto the serving plate.  If you have an adjustable ring mould it is useful to build the layers in that, as it keeps it upright and stops the cream squidging out the sides.  If you haven’t – don’t panic!  Just take care not to put too much cream at the edge of the sponge.

Spoon 1/3 of the whipped cream onto the sponge and spread.

Scatter 1/3 of the raspberries over the cream and top with a second disc of sponge.

Repeat until you have used all the cream and raspberries and have the final disc of sponge on top of the cake.

Refrigerate until serving, and dust with some icing sugar.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.